Our So-Called Lives
by Superkoi
Summary: Dealing with life's challenges is hard enough, but just add surviving high school to the mix and you're in for one wild ride. Friendships are tested. Unexpected romances bloom. And these so-called lives may never be the same again. AU.
1. Surprise attack

**A/N: I know that I already have a few unfinished stories to tend to, but I couldn't go another day without getting this next story on its feet. I've been planning this fic out since 2006. **_**Literally**_**. I just never got around to writing it. So to say that its been a long time coming is a bit of an understatement. I finally feel prepared enough to start it up, so I have a pretty solid idea of where I want the story to go. Expect a little bit of comedy, drama, romance, self-discovery, and teen angst. Ooh, ahh. But in all seriousness, enjoy the first chapter!**

* * *

**OUR SO-CALLED LIVES: Chapter 1**

Hayner only gave three warning honks from Roxas' driveway before he called out an impatient, "C'moooooon, slow poke!".

Roxas just finished stuffing a toaster waffle into his mouth before he swung his backpack over one shoulder and headed toward the front door. "See ya later, mom."

"Don't wait up, kiddo," Roxas' mother, Holly Eberhardt, chirped happily as she came down the stairs. She was grinning coyly at her son while sporting a low-cut blouse and a skirt thats length rivaled some of the things Roxas saw his teenaged female classmates wearing.

The young blonde boy grimaced. He hated when his mother dressed like this because he knew it could only mean one thing: she was seeing someone again.

Roxas stopped short at the front door. "What's this one's name?" He muttered.

His mother sighed. "_This one_ is named Seifer and I really like him. He's an assistant dental hygienist -"

"Wow," Roxas grumbled sarcastically, doing nothing to mask his eye roll.

"-And he's coming over for dinner this Friday so I expect you to be home," Holly warned, adjusting one of her large hoop earrings that was dangling from her ear.

Roxas snorted. "An evening of poorly cooked food where I'm ignored the entire time by another stuck-up boyfriend? Wouldn't miss it for the world, mom."

"Hey," His mother snapped. Roxas slowly looked up from the floor to meet her stern gaze with his own unamused one. "Fix the attitude, mister."

Roxas looked down again, his grip on his backpack strap tightening as he murmured darkly, "Dad wouldn't make me do this."

Holly didn't even have time to reprimand her son before Hayner unknowingly interrupted their argument with another prolonged honk from outside.

"Don't keep your little friends waiting," She sneered, turning around and heading back upstairs.

Roxas replied by slamming the front door shut behind him.

All of the shrinks and doctors that Roxas used to visit back when his parents first got divorced told him that the separation would become easier for him when he got older. Roxas now knew for a fact what he always suspected back then - they were all full of shit. His parents were coping well with the divorce. Or at least it seemed that way. His mother was now very well-known in the local dating pool while his father had settled down in San Francisco with a woman that Roxas has yet to meet.

Which meant that Roxas was left behind to deal with the repercussions of an MIA father and a mother who tended to bring home more men than money to pay the rent.

"About time!" Pence announced when Roxas unceremoniously slid into the seat beside him in the backseat of Hayner's old-school Jeep. "I thought Hayner was _actually_ going to have a conniption!"

The car took off with a soft screech as soon as the door was closed. Hayner's eyes - which were shielded behind a pair of dark sunglasses - appeared in the corner of the rearview mirror. "Do you bozos even realize how many times I've been written up as late to my first period class because of your guys' shenanigans?"

Olette was quick to pipe up from the passenger seat. "I think that has less to do with our shenanigans and more to do with your _dawdling_ in the halls," Pence cackled with laughter and Hayner blindly swatted one of his arms around the back of his chair to shut his friend up. Meanwhile, the brunette girl glanced over the shoulder of her seat and offered a sweet smile. "Morning, Roxas."

Roxas couldn't help but smile back, despite his sour mood. Hayner, Pence, and Olette have been his best friends for as long as he could remember - and they all seemed to serve their own specific purpose, in a way. Hayner was always there to provide a good laugh and keep him on his toes. Pence was a whiz at every school subject and could be accredited to a few of Roxas' passing grades. And Olette has always had the best set of ears. She was often on the receiving end of many of Roxas' meltdowns whenever he needed to vent and she always knew the perfect thing to say to lift his spirits. She offered a bit of much-needed normalcy amongst his wacky friends.

Hayner pulled into his usual parking space outside of Destiny High (crookedly, which was also per usual). He cut the engine and swung himself out of the car, taking a moment to stretch his well-displayed arms over his head of messy brown hair. Hayner's typical ensemble consisted of a slightly ill-fitted tank top, flip-flops, and a pair of patterned cargo shorts. One semester on the JV Lacrosse team had inflated the boy's ego when it comes to showcasing his 'guns', but Hayner was much more tall and lanky than buff.

"So whats got sourpuss in a bad mood today, huh?" Hayner swung an arm over Roxas' shoulders once all his friends got out of the car and started moving across the parking lot toward the front doors of the school.

Roxas shrugged. He knew that Hayner meant well - he usually always did. "It's nothing."

Hayner was just about to pry when Pence spoke up from the back of the group. "You know, he's probably just freaking out about our pop quiz in Bio today! I spent hours last night going over all the different kinds of -"

"Christ, it's only the first week of school! You're not allowed to go all brainiac on us yet," Hayner moved away from Roxas and snatched Pence's textbook right out of his hands. The other boy protested and tried to grab for it back, but Hayner darted away back onto the parking lot. Pence chased after him while Hayner hooted and hollered in amusement.

Roxas barely even batted a lash at his friends' antics and neither did Olette. She was too busy studying Roxas' face like a specimen under a microscope. Carefully, she stepped closer to him, shoulder to shoulder as they continued their slow stroll toward the school. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Olette's advances were much easier to accept than Hayner's. It probably had something to do with the fact that the girl relied on kindness and patience while Hayner went with annoying persistence. Roxas mentally peeled back a layer of his defenses. "Maybe later… I'm still kind of digesting it."

"Well, when you're ready, you know who to call," Olette gently bumped Roxas' shoulder with her own and smiled at her friend. Roxas returned the gesture just as Hayner charged in between them, draping his arms over both of their shoulders. He was only slightly out of breath from the chase, but still grinned devilishly.

"Who's Roxas calling?" He demanded as he nuzzled his nose against Olette's cheek, causing the girl to squeak out a giggle.

Pence suddenly appeared at Roxas' other side, grimacing at his other two friends. His Bio textbook was safely tucked away under his arm. "Yeah. Secrets, secrets are no fun!"

"Unless they're shared with _me_!" Hayner finished brashly. The four friends broke into laughter as they walked through the front doors of their high school together.

Roxas was distracted by a flurry of sweet-smelling blonde hair whipping past. His eyes followed the source down the hall and the blonde girl paused in front of the art classroom to examine the notices posted on the bulletin board. Hayner didn't miss this brief interaction - for someone so flighty, he was surprisingly perceptive.

"Well, they _can't_ be talking about Namine," He didn't bother lowering his voice. "We all know that Roxas hasn't mustered up the courage to talk to her even though he's completely in lo-"

"_Hayner_!" Roxas whispered harshly, pushing at his friend's chest. "Knock it off!"

The brunette troublemaker cackled and attempted to gently fight Roxas back, but the small scuffle managed to catch the attention of Namine in the distance. The two boys paused when they noticed the pretty blonde staring in their direction. Roxas was too shellshocked to respond, but Hayner smiled brightly and waved.

Namine awkwardly waved back and then quickly hurried off down the hallway.

"Dammit," Roxas mumbled, shoving Hayner away from him while the other boy guffawed. "Now she thinks I'm even _more_ of a freak than ever, thanks a lot."

"This is why you should just talk to her, man," Hayner suggested. "For all you know she could have a secret kink for freaks. It's always the pretty, unsuspecting blonde ones…"

"Honestly, you two," Olette chided softly, shaking her head.

The bell rang and everyone mingling in the halls scattered in various directions to their first period classes. Hayner jumped to attention and threw his friends a wink.

"I gotta book it! Because apparently I've been accused of _dawdling_," He tugged on a strand of Olette's hair and the girl swatted him away playfully. "Later!"

Hayner took off down the hall and Roxas didn't miss the way Pence was glaring after him. Olette took Pence by the wrist and started walking with him in another direction toward their first class. They turned back to wave at Roxas. "See you at lunch, Roxas!"

The blonde boy waved back distractedly and then looked around at the crowds of students flooding the halls. Without the company of his friends, it was easy to feel lost in the throngs of bustling classmates. It was only the first week of school and he already felt invisible. With an internal sigh, Roxas headed toward his classroom, but not before some jockish brutes from the football team zoomed past him and bumped into his shoulder, knocking him to the floor. His books and notepads tumbled out of his bag and fell in a disarray around him, getting trampled on by oblivious students as they passed.

The cherry on top of what was quickly turning out to be a _brilliant_ day for Roxas Eberhardt.

* * *

The track field behind the school building was rarely occupied before the start of classes, making it the ideal spot for three friends to meet up in the morning.

Riku jogged around the track, his long silver hair pushed back by the breeze as he gained some speed. Kairi sat on the first row of bleachers, every now and then looking up to watch her friend or the sun rising over the hills in the distance, but was otherwise preoccupied with her book. She smiled to herself as she read. This was their usual early morning routine and it always felt so peaceful - so natural.

"Boo!" The tranquility surrounding them was suddenly interrupted when Sora snuck up behind Kairi and whispered right into her ear. The girl screeched loudly and her book fell from her hands in surprise. Riku perked up with concern the moment Kairi's scream reached his ears, but his lips turned upward into a smile when he realized it was all a prank. He started making his way around the track, back to his friends.

"Sora! Oh my god, I can't believe you!" Kairi's screech quickly melted into laughter, intertwining with Sora's as he grinned cheekily and picked up his friend's book from the ground where it fell. "I almost had a heart attack!"

"Good thing you didn't! 'Cause then you wouldn't have gotten to the end of this baby," Sora handed over Kairi's copy of 'Hamlet' with a quirked brow. "Doesn't everyone die at the end of it?"

"Spoiler alert," Kairi complained teasingly, sticking her tongue out at her friend as she snatched back the book.

Riku jogged over to the pair, remarkably not out of breath even after his impressive display of cardio. He stood in front of the bleachers with his hands on his hips. "Let me guess. An attempted surprise attack?"

"Even worse. He succeeded," Kairi smiled in spite of herself and scooted over on the bench to make room for Sora. The messy haired boy climbed over the metal bench and sat down, stretching his arms over his head casually.

"So I've been thinking," Sora began excitedly. His two friends shared a suspicious look, but he knew it was out of jest so he carried on anyway. "I know that summer vacation is technically over, but we should sneak in one final beach trip before the weather starts getting colder. Maybe, like… this weekend?"

Riku shook his head immediately. "Can't. Track practice all day."

Sora pouted at his friend. Riku's disciplined exercise routine always seemed to pay off. Not only was he the only sophomore to make the varsity track team, he'd also become something of a track prodigy amongst the student body. Sora was happy for him, but it definitely made making plans a little more difficult for the trio of friends. "Kairi?" Sora asked hopefully.

The auburn haired girl looked away with a frown. "I'm sorry, Sora. I'd really love to, but… Mom's making me go to another debutante thing, so…"

The Bennettson family was the most well-known and well-to-do family on Destiny Island. Their ancestors once owned the entire island, leaving the Bennettson Estate to all the generations to come. And Kairi was no exception. Her parents took their social standing very seriously and expect the same kind of dedication from their only daughter. Which meant that every year Kairi was signed up for etiquette classes, ballet lessons, debutante balls, and social luncheons - all of the extracurriculars to be expected of an upstanding young lady.

It was exactly the kind of thing that she hated. Her friends could tell. Kairi, a strong and free-thinking individual by nature, would like nothing more than to be free of her family's expectations. That lifestyle just isn't for her and she isn't afraid to vocalize the fact, which creates tension within her house. Still, every year, Kairi grudgingly attends the boring brunches at the country club and dances with mindless but wealthy boys at the debutante ball all out of fear of disappointing her parents.

"You still go to those things?" Riku sneered. "Don't you think it's a little…"

"Primitive?" Sora interjected.

Riku nodded. "I thought you were supposed to tell your mom that it's either your way or the highway."

Kairi scoffed and stuffed her book back into her bag. "Why don't _you_ try telling my mother that, Riku?"

Sora laughed out loud at the thought and Riku just rolled his eyes. The Bennettsons not only _sounded_ intimidating, but they actually were. Not even courageous Riku could stand his ground against them.

"So…" Sora held out, sneaking glances at his friends. "No beach?"

Kairi and Riku looked away silently.

Sora shrugged and threw a grin at his friends despite his minor disappointment. He wasn't the kind of person to let things get him down that easily. "Don't sweat it, guys. Rain check for another time, then."

They could hear the school bell in the distance, which was their signal to head to first period along with everyone else. Riku was the first one to get moving. He grabbed his bag, swung it over his shoulder, and smiled at his friends. "Catch you guys later," He rustled up Sora's hair a little as he passed him, then jogged all the way back to the main building.

"You're not gonna try to race him back?" Kairi teased as she collected her things and stood.

"Not when you need to be escorted to first period!" Sora gave an enthusiastic bow and held out his hand in a gentlemanly gesture, making Kairi giggle into her palm. She willingly played along by flipping her hair over her shoulder and gently taking Sora's hand to step down from the bleachers.

"Why, thank you, kind sir," She gushed dramatically. The pair laughed and followed after Riku, who was already walking through the front doors in the distance.

"Anytime, m'lady."

* * *

Roxas considered himself pretty lucky when his favorite class turned out to be his first period of the day. He figured it would be an incentive to get up every morning and enjoy himself before he had to struggle through the less appealing subjects like math and science.

But that was before this morning happened. It seemed like nothing could lift his spirits - not even a hefty dose of creative writing.

The class was small, appearing to hold only about sixteen students in total, a majority of whom seemed to be upperclassmen. Roxas might've been a bit more intimidated if half of his fellow classmates weren't either sleeping on their desks or texting away on their cell phones. The creative writing elective didn't always attract the most stellar students at Destiny High due to its reputation for being an 'easy A'. Most of the students would only sign up for the course, plagiarize a few poetry assignments, and do the minimal amount of work required to obtain their necessary literature credits before graduation.

That made Roxas the minority by a long shot. Unlike his lackluster classmates, he had signed up for the course because of genuine interest in the subject. But judging by the way his first week of classes had been going, he didn't think he'd be doing much creative writing at all.

"Hey, you."

Roxas stopped his journey to his desk. He hadn't expected to be addressed by anyone in this class, let alone by a fellow student. The blonde boy perked up and turned around to face the speaker, surprised to see that it was a senior boy he hadn't even noticed in the classroom before.

Which Roxas found very strange because this boy seemed like the kind of person who was unforgettable.

The first thing Roxas noticed was the boy's head of outrageously red hair. It nearly looked unnatural, especially considering the way it spiked out behind him like the mane of an angry lion. His skin was pale, porcelain, and spotless except for the two small triangular tattoos under his sharp green eyes. He had his combat boot-clad feet propped up on his desk and was leaning back so far in his chair that Roxas expected him to fall flat on his back at any moment. The boy grinned devilishly at Roxas in a manner that would've felt untrustworthy if it weren't for the obvious overtones of friendliness.

"You do speak english, don't you? Hello? Hola? Bonjour…?" The redheaded boy tried again, quirking an equally as red eyebrow in curiosity.

Roxas suddenly realized that he'd been staring like an idiot for quite some time now. He shook his head and willed himself to socialize. "Yeah. Sorry. I do - speak english, I mean."

Still grinning, the boy nodded his head and motioned to the empty desk beside him with a flourish of his hand. "Good. Now that we've got that settled, wanna take a seat?"

Roxas was taken aback once again. Not only was his usual seat at the front of the room, but he also wasn't used to random strangers reaching out to him like this. "Um…"

The boy moved his feet off his desk and to the ground with a sigh. "I can tell that these questions are getting a little too complicated for you so I'll make it easy. You sit. We chat. And then we both get through this class in one piece. Got it memorized?"

"Yeah, sure," Roxas blinked and slowly took his seat beside the redhead. He hung his backpack off the back of his chair and removed his notebook to settle on his desktop. Roxas sat in silence for a moment and glanced over at the clock hanging over the door. All the while he could feel the senior boy's emerald eyes watching him.

"Jeez, kid, no need to talk my ear off," The grin was back on the boy's face as he extended a hand toward Roxas. "The name's Axel Thorne. Not to be confused with Guns 'N Roses frontman, Axel _Rose_. Ironic, I know. I get it all the time. Got it memorized?"

Roxas actually cracked somewhat of a smile. He took Axel's hand and shook it in return. "Axel. Right. I'm Roxas."

"_Roxas_," Axel repeated slowly as if enjoying the way the new name sounded coming from his mouth. "So tell me, Roxas, are you always such a ray of friggin' sunshine? Or is that just a today thing?"

The sarcasm was evident, leading Roxas to believe that he hadn't been as inconspicuous with his miserable expression as he had hoped to be. "Oh… It's just been a pretty rough morning."

To his surprise, Axel nodded in understanding. "Tell me about it! Found out I had a flat on my car this morning in the parking lot. Had to spend all my free time before class changing it."

Roxas looked down at his lap. "My mom's making me sit down to another 'family dinner' this Friday with her and boyfriend-number-seven, the assistant dental hygienist."

"Huh," Axel flashed him a look that was both amused and sympathetic. "You win."

Their unenthused teacher, Mr. Horowitz, scuttled into the room and placed his things on the front desk. Hardly anyone moved. The slightly balding man began droning on softly, turning his back to the class to start scrawling on the blackboard. Roxas looked up and opened his notebook to a blank page. Silently, he began jotting down the notes as Mr. Horowitz produced them. Again, Axel stared him down curiously.

"Don't tell me you actually _want_ to pay attention," He berated. Roxas merely shrugged and continued taking notes. Axel heaved an exaggerated sigh and leaned his elbows on his desktop with mock attentiveness. "Alright. We'll play by your rules today."

The rest of class progressed with very little chatter between the two boys. Every now and then Roxas could still feel Axel's gaze on him, but he chalked it up to self-consciousness. When the next bell rang, very little had been accomplished, but the students still gathered their things and fled the room at top speed. Roxas was still packing up his bag when Axel stood and moved in front of the younger boy's desk.

"You got a phone?" He asked casually.

Roxas nodded dumbly. "Yeah."

"Number," Axel elaborated with a chuckle. He pulled out a simple black iPhone from his pocket and looked at Roxas expectantly. The blonde boy raised his eyebrows a little, but still rattled off his phone number while Axel typed it onto his keypad quickly. "Come sit at my table at lunch today."

And with that, Axel grinned and then turned to leave. Roxas still didn't know what to make of all this. Either Axel had ulterior motives or sincerely was as friendly as he seemed. Regardless, it appeared that Roxas now had new plans for lunch time. He idly wondered what his friends would think of him ditching their table to sit with a group of seniors. Hayner would have a few choice words for him, for sure, but Pence and Olette would both be too kind to say anything.

A low grumble from Mr. Horowitz at the front of the room broke Roxas from his thoughts. "Get a move on, Mr. Eberhardt. We wouldn't want you to be late for your next class."

"Yes, sir," Roxas jumped up from his seat, grabbed his backpack, and hurried out the door to get this day over with once and for all.

**TBC**


	2. Abbey Road

**A/N: This took me way longer than necessary to type out, but I'm having such a fun time reading over my rough drafts of these chapters back from 2006 and revising them. I made a few references to Razr phones in the old drafts, if that gives anyone an idea of how outdated they are! But anyway, thanks to everyone who's taken the time to read this story so far. Hopefully you'll keep following along as the plots start thickening. Enjoy chapter two! **

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**OUR SO-CALLED LIVES: Chapter 2**

The walk back from school wasn't a long one, but Sora, Kairi, and Riku had a habit of taking the long way to stroll past the beach. Destiny Island had dozens of beaches open to the public, but this particular one - the one near the fishing dock - was known as _theirs_. During the summer months, it was rare to find one of them off the sand or out of the water. They'd wake up with the sun, pack their bags, and meet up at the beach where they'd stay until it was too dark to see anymore. The trio had shared so many moments on that beach. They played games, they told stories, they shared their fears, they confided in their secrets, they laughed, they cried.

That beach was magical.

Sometimes they'd take a detour on their walk back home just to enjoy the nice sea breeze for a few moments, but it didn't seem right without Riku with them. The older boy was caught up with track practice, just like he always was. Sora and Kairi were perfectly content to spend some time alone together, but in the depths of their hearts, they knew they were a stronger force with Riku by their sides.

"Kairi, truth or dare?" Sora asked as they strolled down the sandy path by the beach, his hands resting behind his head.

The girl side-eyed her friend with playful suspicion. "Truth."

"Hm…" Sora mused, puckering his lips in deep thought. "Who do you wish would be your date to the debutante ball thing?"

Kairi attempted to look outraged through her fit of giggles, shoving at Sora's shoulder a little. "Sora, you jerk!"

"C'mon!" He laughed. "I'm sure you know tons of guys on Destiny Island who are… ya know, high society or whatever."

Kairi's smile turned a little more pensive as she looked out over the rolling waves of the ocean coming and going from the shore. "I'd convince my mother that I'm involved in a polygamous relationship and take both you and Riku as my dates," She turned back to Sora with a smile and giggled softly.

The ridiculous joke made Sora's heart flutter. A debutante ball didn't exactly sound like his cup of tea either, but if it meant that he could dance the night away with Kairi, then he'd sign up in a heartbeat.

Sora laughed with her. "If your parents don't murder me in my sleep first!"

Kairi was beaming with amusement and began walking with a little more pep in her step. "Okay, Sora. Truth or dare?"

"Dare," He declared instantly, a bright grin tugging mercilessly on his lips.

The girl hummed as she thought, glancing around for inspiration. She knew that her suggested dare had to be a good one - Sora was too fearless to accept anything less. Kairi glanced upward and then her bright blue eyes sparkled with mischief. "I dare you to get that paopu fruit down from that tree," She pointed up at the fruit in question.

Sora's gaze followed the direction of her finger. There was, in fact, a vibrant paopu fruit hanging from the treetop, many feet up into the air. Sora's expression dropped a little at the sight, but before Kairi could start feeling victorious, he straightened his spine and put on a braver face.

"You're on!" He called out, tossing his backpack to the ground and lunging for the palm tree. Kairi's eyes widened with concern and she stepped forward as if to stop him, but Sora was already starting his climb up the skinny trunk.

"Sora, I was kidding," She explained quickly. "You're gonna hurt yourself!"

"You shouldn't have dared me then," Sora called back down to her. He clung tightly to the tree trunk, frantically trying to scoot himself further up toward the fruit. "Besides, have a little faith, Kairi."

The girl sighed at her friend. "_I_ have plenty of faith, but that palm tree looks like it might have other plans."

Sora only laughed. Turning down a challenge just because it was dangerous wasn't in his nature. Although his tendency to act before thinking made for some fun adventures, it also seemed to get him into trouble more often than not. Riku would often indulge in his antics, turning the scenario into some kind of competition between the two boys, leaving Kairi to talk her friends off the ledge if she deemed anything too dangerous.

"What are you gonna do with the paopu anyway?" Sora wondered aloud. His voice was more distant now that he'd gotten higher up the trunk.

Kairi shrugged. Although she was probably the more logical one in the group, she still couldn't resist a joke of her own. "Hm… I dunno. Probably share it with someone."

Sora struggled up the tree quietly. "Share it?"

"Yeah, you know, that old legend," Kairi explained cheerfully. "If you share a paopu fruit with someone special, then your destinies become intertwined forever."

"Well," Sora paused his climbing for a moment, mostly to catch his breath, but also because he was immensely curious to know more about this so-called legend. "Who are _you_ gonna share it with?"

Kairi smiled innocently, although the gesture was missed by Sora. "Probably my date to the debutante ball."

"What?!" Sora's outrage caused him to lose his footing and, eventually, his grip on the trunk. With a cry, he dropped from the tree and landed on the soft sand below in a heap. "_Oof_."

"Sora!" Kairi hurried over to him, dropping to her knees to get a closer look. "Are you okay? You're such an _idiot_! You should've picked truth."

Sora looked up at Kairi and, to her surprise, was grinning widely, soft chuckles leaving his mouth even though he looked a bit disoriented from the fall. "Where's the fun in that, huh?"

Kairi sighed in relief, but simultaneously rolled her eyes, which made Sora chuckle even more. "C'mon, loser, you're coming with me. I have an ice pack you can use at home," She helped Sora to his feet as she stood, making sure he was stable enough to stand on his own.

Sora frowned playfully. "Loser?" He complained.

Kairi said nothing. She just subtly pointed a finger upward with a smirk, indicating the lone paopu fruit that still hung high up on the tree. Sora growled out a sigh and followed behind a giggling Kairi as they made their way down the path toward the Bennettson Estate.

To say that Kairi's house was a mansion would be a vast understatement. The grand monstrosity was poised atop a grassy hill on the north end of the island with a large cast iron fence gating off the entirety of their property. The long stretch of gravely driveway, which was flanked by a row of stately palm trees, was an intimidating sight of its own. It led straight to the front courtyard, decorated with flowers and fountains, that covered the path to the main doors. When Sora was very young and just moved to the island with his family, he would catch sight of the estate in the distance. His young and overactive imagination would come up with theories about how a princess was locked away in that castle.

It wasn't until he actually met Kairi that he realized he was right all along.

"Just make yourself comfortable and I'll be right back with the ice," Kairi tossed her backpack onto the floor beside the fireplace in the sitting room before hurrying off into the kitchen.

Sora shuffled in awkwardly. The inside of the estate was just as immaculate as the outside. He'd only been over to Kairi's house a handful of times, but it never got easier to 'make himself comfortable'. Nothing about the room seemed particularly comfortable. The couch was upholstered to perfection without a single decorative pillow out of place. The armchairs were lavish, but appeared to be antiques - most likely remnants of the wealthy Bennettson ancestors. Instead, Sora took a seat at the bench by the large bay windows near the back of the room where he seemed least likely to mess something up. The view overlooked the ocean until it melded together with the blue of the sky in the horizon.

Sora turned his head just in time to catch the ice pack that Kairi tossed to him. She also came bearing two juice pouches, one of which she was already sipping through the straw. The other one she offered to Sora with a smile as she sat beside him on the bench. He couldn't help but think how silly it all was to him - his just-as-overactive imagination assumed that a house like this would only supply caviar and fine wine as an after-school snack.

But Sora was really glad that Kairi was a juice pouch kind of girl.

"Thanks," He smiled back and pressed the ice pack to his shoulder, just for good measure. With his other hand he stabbed the top of the juice pouch with his straw to start drinking.

Kairi gazed out the window whimsically. "It's really beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is… The ocean looks so still right now," Sora's eyes followed Kairi's gaze. The sea looked like a sheet of unmoving glass expanding over the horizon.

The girl pulled her juice pouch away from her lips, which still held the traces of a smile. "This is my favorite spot in the whole house."

Sora snuck a glance at Kairi. "Even more than your room?"

"My room doesn't have a view this beautiful. Besides, it gets so lonely up there," She finally looked away from the window and met Sora's eyes, but her expression remained as if she were still watching something special. "But right here, I can sit together with _you_."

Kairi's hand was suddenly laying overtop of Sora's. Their warm skin pressed together in an innocent, but still spine-tingling way. The brunette boy stared down at their hands, frantically wondering why this time seemed different out of the dozens of other times they've held hands. _Have Kairi's hands always been that soft?_

"Kairi, honey!"

Their moment was interrupted by the sound of the main doors opening, followed by a commanding but melodic voice coming from the foyer. Instinctively, Kairi groaned under her breath and withdrew her hand from Sora's. He had half a mind to reach over and grab her hand again, but suddenly Kairi's mother was standing in the doorway. She held up a large garment bag like a prize-winning trophy.

"I just picked up your dress from the shop, angel, and it's even _more_ stunning than it was at the initial fitting! I have a feeling you're going to be the belle of the-" Mrs. Bennettson cut herself off when she looked past the garment bag to find her daughter - with company.

"Hey, mom. Sora's here," Kairi announced.

Sora put on his best smile and waved awkwardly with his free hand. "Hi, Mrs. Bennettson."

The woman couldn't have appeared more put off by the boy's greeting. She lowered the garment bag and muttered a soft and harsh, "I didn't realize you were having friends over."

Sora's smile quickly fell into a frown as Kairi mouthed him a silent "sorry". Much to the Bennettson's dismay, their daughter didn't plan on dropping her friendships with Sora and Riku. Along with their family's high social caliber, there came a great propensity toward snobbery. The Bennettsons would've liked nothing more than to have their headstrong daughter spending her free time at the country club or attending the Junior League luncheons instead of frolicking around the beach with two boys who contributed nothing to the social world of Destiny Island.

Kairi had gotten this speech dozens of times before and it never failed to make her blood boil.

"It's just Sora, mom," She explained with forced enthusiasm, jumping up from the bench and heading toward her mother. The girl's ocean blue eyes were narrowed as if she had a plan. Before her mother could complain, Kairi unzipped the garment bag to reveal a pink ball gown with entirely too many ruffles and bows. She took the dress and held it up to herself, then spun in place so that the layers of fabrics swooshed against each other. "What do you think?"

Sora was shocked to realize that the question was directed toward him. His eyes widened in surprise as he scratched the back of his head. It was very hard to be honest with Mrs. Bennettson looming over her daughter's shoulder.

"_Wow_," Sora managed. "It's really… _pink_."

"We shouldn't bother him with questions he has no interest in, honey," Mrs. Bennettson patted Kairi on the shoulder, not even bothering to glance over at Sora.

"But he _should_ be interested, mom," Kairi pulled her shoulder away and turned to face her mother determinedly. "Because Sora's going to be my date to the ball."

The ice pack slipped from Sora's grasp, the bundle of half-melted ice falling against the bench with a resounding smack. All eyes were on him and Sora couldn't help but drop his jaw in his surprise even while the two auburn-haired ladies were both clearly waiting for some kind of response. After shifting his gaze back and forth between the two women for a while, Sora finally smiled - awkwardly, but a smile nonetheless.

"Just call me prince charming…?" He shrugged a little, causing Kairi to giggle into her hands. Mrs. Bennettson's expression seemed frozen into a deep scowl - menacing but controlled. The woman turned on her heel and left the room swiftly.

Once they were alone, Sora's eyes immediately flickered to Kairi, still just as wide as before. "You've gotta be kidding me, Kairi!"

Kairi continued to laugh, falling back into the couch in a ridiculous heap of pink lace and frills.

* * *

Roxas dropped his lunch tray onto his usual table to garner the attention of his friends. "Guys."

Olette perked up curiously while Pence lifted his head that was buried inside a textbook. Hayner reached over to snatch a french fry off of Roxas' tray. "Gonna eat that?" He was already dipping the fry in ketchup and stuffing it into his mouth.

"_Guys_," He tried again. "I just stopped by to say that I can't sit here today."

"What?" His three friends said in unison.

Hayner nearly jumped up in outrage, the fry halfway hanging out of his mouth. "We've been sitting here since freshman year. This is _our spot_. You can't just bail on _our spot_!"

"Is everything alright, Roxas?" Olette's brow was already knitted together with worry.

Pence pushed his textbook away, a definitive sign that he had his full attention now. "Hayner's right. I mean… Where else would you sit?"

Roxas sighed, feeling foolish for ever thinking he could get away with this without an interrogation. "A friend from my writing class. It's not a big deal."

"You'd rather sit around and talk about feelings and poetry than hang out with _us_?" Hayner demanded, earning him a shove from Olette.

Roxas sighed again. "He invited me to sit at his table today and I… don't wanna be rude."

"Who's 'he'?" Pence questioned. Roxas opened his mouth to respond when a gentle hand came down on his shoulder from behind.

"Axel," The familiar voice from behind him answered. Roxas looked up to see that same obnoxiously red hair from his first period class. Axel was grinning at the friends - an attempt at being charming, but it came off as snarky more than anything else.

The three friends blinked in surprise.

"Guys, this is Axel," Roxas introduced quickly. "And this is Hayner, Pence, and Olette."

"A pleasure. Now, you don't mind if I steal Roxas here for a while, do you?" This time, his grin was intentionally snarky. "I promise to give him back in one piece."

Hayner nodded. "Uh, sure," It was one of the few times Roxas had ever seen his friend speechless.

Axel winked and then started leading Roxas away from the table. "See ya later," The blonde boy waved to his bemused friends and picked up his tray again.

"I thought you might be a no-show," Axel explained as they steered through the bustling cafeteria. "So I took it upon myself to do a little damage control. We don't want your friends thinking I'm some kind of creep, after all."

Roxas could feel himself turn a little red and he didn't quite know why. "Well, I've only known you for a couple of hours now. You could still be a creep."

"You're dining with the creepy big kids today. So what does that say about you, huh?" Axel smirked and Roxas actually cracked a genuine smile as he chuckled. The redhead pointed a finger at the corner of Roxas' upturned lips. "Aha! I knew I could get a smile out of you today."

Despite himself, Roxas' grin grew wider as he swatted Axel's hand away.

Axel's lunch table was located in the back corner of the cafeteria. Despite it being tucked away from plain view, Roxas still found it strange that he never noticed the odd collection of seniors sitting there. They all wore black and had various different piercings, tattoos, and hairstyles. Some were scribbling away in notebooks, some were picking idly at their lunches, and others were scrolling through their phones. However, they all sat in silence as if they were strangers rather than a group of friends.

"How cute. Axel found a stray," A boy with blue hair quietly sneered from the other end of the table, though the remark didn't go unheard by the others. The only girl at the table, a snooty-looking blonde, giggled wildly into her palm.

Roxas slowly sunk into his seat beside Axel, who shot a terrifying glance at the blue-haired boy. "This is Xemnas, Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia, Larxene, and that charmer down there is Saix," Axel nudged Roxas with his elbow and chuckled as if he were sharing a private joke with himself. "Organization, meet Roxas."

Roxas received no greetings, only suspicious glares. His brain was scrambling to remember all of their names at once, but something else was grabbing his curiosity instead. He turned to Axel and asked, "Organization?"

"It's just something we like to call ourselves," Axel told him, reaching down the front of his shirt to reveal a dog tag necklace with a strange looking emblem engraved on it.

As he glanced down the table at the other members, Roxas noticed that they all wore that very same emblem - some on a ring, some on a headband, and some with a necklace like Axel. Roxas lifted an eyebrow at the redhead. "Are you some kind of gang?"

Axel laughed boisterously. "Not exactly, 21 Jump Street. We're not really into labels over here on this side of the cafeteria."

Roxas nodded. No labels, no restrictions. He could get used to that idea. "So why'd you ask me to sit with you, anyway?"

"'Cause I like making new friends. Is that such a crime?" Axel gave Roxas a look that was both perplexed and intrigued, then he leaned his elbows on the tabletop and reached over to casually take a fry from the boy's tray. "Jeez, you're nosey. Anyone ever tell you that?"

"Not to my face," Roxas replied and Axel chuckled.

"Alright, my turn to ask some hard-hitting questions," Axel drummed his fingertips together with a smirk. "What's… your favorite color?"

Roxas looked up from his lunch tray. "Huh?"

"Roxas, this is a very important piece of information. You. Favorite color. Go," Axel encouraged with a kind of playful confidence that Roxas really admired.

The blonde struggled with the unexpected question. "Um, I dunno… Blue?"

"Birthday?"

"August 6th."

"Favorite Beatles album?"

"Abbey Road."

"Good choice. And what's the deal with your daddy issues?"

"Daddy issues?" Roxas narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Axel waved a hand nonchalantly. "In class you mentioned something about that dental hygienist-"

"He's _not_ my father," Roxas interrupted harshly. The uncharacteristic outburst even took Axel aback. The redhead put his hands up as if he were going into defense.

"Fine, fine, you're definitely _not_ related," Axel shrugged. "But what gives?"

Roxas looked down again. This wasn't his ideal topic of discussion, but it might pay off to retell the saga to a fresh pair of ears. "My parents got divorced and my mom started dating again. And the men she brings home are all far from marriage material."

Axel, for once, looked somewhat solemn as he listened. He nodded his head slowly and reached absently for another fry. "Where's the real old man Eberhardt?"

"San Francisco," Roxas sighed. "As far away as he could've possibly gone. I've been trying to make plans to go visit him sometime, but… it hasn't worked out. He's really busy."

"Jeez, pass me the tissues while you're at it," Axel chewed the french fry a bit pensively. "Family sucks, my friend."

"You can say that again," Roxas agreed. "What about you?"

Axel was smirking again in an instant. "Well, I like to think that I don't _suck_…"

"No, I mean," The younger boy looked up to meet Axel's eyes. "What about _your_ family?"

For a brief flickering of a second, that usual cloud of confidence vanished from Axel's face. Roxas could practically hear the gears inside the senior's mind turning as he decided how to respond. The moment passed, however, and Axel was back to his collected self in no time, shrugging easily.

"Don't have one," He said simply.

Roxas' expression twisted into one of pure puzzlement. He tried to rack his mind for the right thing to say, but the dismissal bell beat him to the punch. The other Organization members stood and dispersed into various directions, still in silence. Roxas looked down at his untouched lunch, except for the tray of french fries that had been moderately devoured by Axel, and then stood when he noticed the redhead slinging his bag over his shoulder.

"'Til tomorrow, Roxas," Axel seemed back to his usual self and even winked before he turned to leave the cafeteria.

Roxas, mind still swimming with unanswered questions, tossed his lunch into a nearby trash can and followed the crowd of students out into the hallway.

* * *

The sun was just beginning to set by the time track practice at Destiny High ended. Riku, after a few extra laps around the track and a long shower in the locker room, was finally on his way home. A few of his teammates clapped him on the back on his way out, a congratulatory gesture for beating his old record mile time that afternoon. The silver-haired sophomore gave his thanks and let his aching limbs carry him all the way home.

He didn't take the path by the beach. He was alone. It wouldn't be right.

Riku's house was in an old neighborhood of the Island. It was quaint with sand-covered roads and cobblestone sidewalks, but the houses were much too close together and a bit too small. When Riku stepped inside, the first thing he noticed was his father's study to the left of the front door. The desktop was covered in papers, some crumpled into a ball and others just strewn around messily. A few of the books from the shelf had fallen to the floor as well as a small table lamp, the bulb shattered into tiny pieces on the rug - the scene of another one of his father's episodes.

Riku didn't want to think about how it was a part of his daily routine by now to come home to a similar sight. Instead, he put the books back onto the shelf, stacked the papers as best he could on the desktop, and swept the glass shards into a dustpan. Riku then followed the soft volume of the television set in the living room to find his father sprawled haphazardly across the couch, fast asleep as the dim glow of the screen lit up the room. A half empty soda can was still in the man's clutches so Riku took it and placed it on the end table. He noticed his father's medication bottle sitting amongst the clutter of the coffee table, picking it up to examine it and do a quick count to make sure he'd taken his pills for the day.

"Hey, dad," Riku sighed softly even though the man couldn't hear him. He grabbed an afghan blanket from the recliner and gently laid it over his father's sleeping form, then turned the television off before heading upstairs.

It had been barely over a year since Riku's mother met her untimely death in a car accident off the Island. Sometimes the memories felt so vivid that Riku would've sworn it happened only yesterday. Other times, the memories were distant like some kind of far-off dream that didn't even belong to him. That's when Riku started running. He learned to love the burn of his muscles after over-exertion - the rush that he got as he ran far, far away from everything else except the wind against his skin and the quickening of his heart.

Riku's father wasn't as strong as his son. The burdens left behind after his wife's death were too much for him to handle and he had no way to cope. He never recovered from the grief. There were days when the smallest of issues would set him off, causing him to wreak havoc in his study or throw something across the room. Other days were worse and he'd lock himself away in his room, unable to function due to his depression. Various tests and evaluations unanimously diagnosed him with bipolar disorder, leaving his son as his sole caretaker during his episodes. Sometimes Riku just needed to escape - he'd run, he'd go to the beach, he'd hang out with his friends.

And sometimes he just needed his mother.

He made his way into his room on the second floor, small and cozy with a tilted ceiling like an attic room. Although he was exhausted, Riku knew that he wouldn't be getting to sleep any time soon. Part of him wanted to run the block a few times, just for fresh air, but he knew that he'd crash and burn if he didn't rest. Riku paced the floor restlessly until he walked over to his window. The sun had completely gone down by now, but he could still see that his window led right out to the rooftop. Without thinking, the boy pushed open his window and climbed out of it.

Riku was greeted by a rush of warm, fresh outside air. He inhaled deeply as he sat on the roof, leaning back to stare up at the small specks of stars in the night sky.

"I guess my hiding place isn't such a secret anymore," An unfamiliar voice spoke up softly.

Riku sat up with a start. It was hard to make it out in the darkness, but a small figure sat cross-legged on the rooftop across from him. She was bent over her lap as she scribbled intently onto her large sketchpad, long blonde tresses falling around her face to shroud her features in mystery. It wasn't until she looked up from her artwork that Riku noticed a pair of bright blue eyes blinking at him.

"Oh… Sorry. Didn't even see you there," Riku apologized.

The girl shrugged her tiny shoulders and went back to sketching. "It's okay. You can stay."

They both fell into a comfortable silence with their only accompaniment being the distant roll of the sea waves onto the shore and the gentle scratching of her pencil against the paper. Still, Riku couldn't stop staring at her. His mysterious neighbor seemed strangely familiar to him.

"I'm Riku, by the way," He spoke again, breaking the silence.

The scratching noise stopped as she quietly replied, "I know."

The boy was confused. "You know who I am?"

"Riku Gaines, sophomore. Track star of Destiny High," She declared with only a small amount of sarcasm.

He sighed bashfully and scratched the back of his head. "Something like that."

"And I'm Namine Lunette, sophomore. Self-imposed art geek," She continued.

"Nice to meet you, Namine."

"You, too, Riku."

More silence. Still comfortable. The scratching noise started up again.

"So what are you hiding from?" Riku asked. Namine's blue eyes looked up into the darkness again in a silent question. "Well, you said this is your secret hiding place. That must mean you're hiding from something."

Namine's response was a bit too delayed to come across as convincing. "I just like coming out here to sketch."

Riku grinned a little. "What're you drawing?"

"Your house, actually," She answered shyly. "I hope you don't mind."

"Only if I can see it when you're done," He said.

It was still hard to see through the darkness of night, but the corners of Namine's mouth just might've lifted into a smile. "Okay."

There was a muted thud from downstairs in Riku's house, followed by noisy footsteps and a groggy call of, "Riku? You home?", to signify that his father had woken up.

Riku looked over at Namine. "I have to…"

"It's okay. I understand," The blonde girl nodded her head and flashed Riku the smallest of goodbye smiles before returning to her sketchpad.

Riku stole a lingering glance at Namine before getting up and climbing back into the stifling indoor air. He closed the window behind him with a resounding slam.

**TBC**


	3. Dubstep doesn't count

**A/N: I was having some intense mental blockage yesterday, but this morning I felt like it all came to me at once so I started typing this chapter up like a fiend! I'm going to be out of town this weekend, which means it might be a little longer than usual for the next update. But for now, please enjoy the next chapter!**

* * *

**OUR SO-CALLED LIVES: Chapter 3**

"Oh my god… They're like a freakin' _cult_!" Hayner slammed his locker door shut for emphasis and Roxas jumped from the loud noise. Olette and Pence both rolled their eyes in exasperation.

Roxas had been debating whether or not to rehash his unusual experience at Axel's lunch table yesterday, but his friends left him with no choice - they were all beyond curious to hear about the fiery-haired senior boy who swept him away before any of them could get in a word in edgewise. So Roxas warily racked his brain to recite as many details as he could recall (including a horrifically failed attempt at remembering all the bizarre names of the other occupants at the table). Hayner, however, was still caught up on Roxas' description of the strange emblem that all of them donned in one way or another.

"Actually, I think cults are usually only tied to religious affiliations," Pence supplied helpfully.

"We don't know anything about them, P-man," Hayner turned around slowly to face his friends, his expression dark and mysterious like it usually was whenever his mind started concocting one of his harebrained theories. "For all we know, that weird emblem they all wear could be some kind of ancient tribal symbol for Hades… No, the _devil_! Right this very moment they could be plotting to lure our Roxas into their clutches and take him down with them! Don't drink the Kool-Aid, Roxas! _Don't drink it_!"

Caught up in his bout of passion, Hayner lunged forward and desperately grabbed Roxas by the front of his shirt to plead with him, but the blonde haired boy pushed his friend away haughtily. "Would you cut it out? They're _not_ a cult."

"Hayner _kind of_ has a point, Roxas," Olette spoke up, causing her three friends to stop and stare at her with interest. "I mean, we really don't know much about them at all. Axel seems to be nice, but… I've seen some of them walking through the halls before. You just need to be careful."

Roxas shook his head defeatedly. "If you guys are _actually_ concerned, then I'll just stop hanging out with them."

"No!" Hayner erupted and suddenly all eyes were on him once again. "You gotta keep this up. Penetrate from the inside-"

Roxas grimaced. "I think you mean _infiltrate_…"

"-and figure out their true motives! It'll be like a real-life episode of Criminal Minds!"

Pence nudged Olette. "I thought we weren't supposed to let him watch that show anymore," The girl shrugged helplessly.

"You want me to spy?" Roxas questioned with a lifted brow.

"Spy? Did I say anything about _spying_?" Hayner wrapped an arm around Roxas' shoulders and brought him in close to speak conspiratorially. "How many times in life are we gonna get this opportunity? The opportunity to demystify one of Destiny High's biggest secrets? It's not every day one of us gets adopted by a group of seniors. You gotta figure out why and then report back."

Roxas wore a blank stare. "So… Spying."

Hayner retracted his arm from the blonde boy and threw his hands into the air dismissively. "Alright, fine! I want you to go all James Bond on their pretentious asses!"

"Don't you think that's a little unethical?" Olette cut in. "These are Roxas' friends so he should get the final say."

"Ethics, shmethics. This plan is gonna make this semester _so_ much more interesting!" Hayner pumped his fist into the air, clapped Roxas on the back, and then ran ceremoniously down the hall to his next class.

Pence looked over at Roxas contritely. "Don't worry. He'll forget all about this by next period when he's already thinking up our next great scheme."

"You know how Hayner can be," Olette added with a meaningful sigh. Despite the migraines that his friends' antics have been known to cause, Roxas couldn't help but chuckle. If nothing else, it provided him with an endless supply of entertainment.

A swarm of darkness caught Roxas' attention out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head in time to watch the two black-clad seniors glide gracefully down the hallway. The surrounding students seemed to wordlessly part the way for them, as if they all knew that direct contact should be kept to a minimum. The two seniors walked shoulder to shoulder in matching strides and Roxas vaguely remembered them from Axel's lunch table. One wore an eyepatch over one eye and the other had vibrantly pink hair.

There was a peculiar urge bubbling up inside of Roxas' chest - the urge to follow. Although they were most likely on their way to class like all the other students, he couldn't seem to stifle his raging curiosity. He mentally cursed Hayner for planting these insane ideas inside his head that he couldn't seem to shake free. Roxas turned back to Pence and Olette - who appeared to have picked up on his blatant staring - and began backing away slowly down the hall.

"So I'll… catch you guys later, then?" He dismissed flightily. After a knowing chuckle from Olette and a wave from Pence, Roxas took off after the Organization members.

It didn't take him long to catch up to them, making sure to keep a fair distance between them just in case. The pair were talking to each other. Every now and then Roxas would see one of them turn their head toward the other, lips moving at a quickened pace. Again, Roxas' curiosity uncontrollably seeped to the surface. The Organization members seemed perfectly content to sit in silence during their lunch time, so what could they possibly be talking about now?

Roxas knew that the only way to find out was to move in closer, as risky as that idea seemed. As silently as he could, the blonde boy picked up his pace until he could almost reach out and touch the pink-haired boy's black messenger bag hanging off his shoulder.

"…tonight. Axel will be there with Saix. Just make sure you're on time…"

"…Right. I'll be sure to bring everything I've got…"

In his strained attempt at listening in, Roxas lost his balance and tripped over a non-existent bump on the floor. His shoe gave an unruly squeak against the tiles that seemed to permeate through all the other noise in the hallway. Roxas could feel the hot whips of panic as he noticed the two Organization members start turning around to investigate the sound, so he leapt into the nearest doorway.

He promptly shut the door behind him, sealing himself away into safety - for now. Roxas didn't dare peek out the skinny window on the door. Instead, he ducked below it and released a large exhale, suddenly realizing that he'd been holding his breath for a while.

"Hello?"

Roxas jumped - still skittish from his spying debacle - and spun around to face the classroom. It was empty, much to his relief, except for a lone girl sitting in the back. It was the art classroom, judging by the paintings hanging from the walls and the line of pottery assignments drying on a shelf in the back. The girl with sunshine hair and big blue eyes looked entirely too familiar to Roxas, but, even so, it took him an embarrassing moment for his mind to catch up. It was Namine.

_Shit_.

Admittedly, all of Roxas' previous encounters with his long-time crush have been brief. And agonizingly awkward. The blonde boy had an ungainly tendency to clam up whenever it came to striking up conversation with the most hauntingly angelic creature at Destiny High. Roxas had never considered himself to be a great conversationalist anyway, but there was something about Namine that rendered him into a foolish, blubbering mess of a human being.

"H-Hi, Namine," He stammered, intending to sound much more calm and collected than he actually had.

The pretty blonde offered a small smile as she returned to her project on the art table. "I didn't know you take art."

"Oh, no - I mean - yeah," Roxas took a hesitant step further into the room. "I mean… I just like to stop by sometimes and… admire."

Namine was still smiling, but out of genuine kindness or pity, Roxas wasn't quite sure. "I didn't know you're an admirer of art, either."

"Yeah! I love it. It's really great," Roxas didn't know who this person talking was or why he'd presumably taken over his body, but he sincerely hoped that he knew how to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

Namine, unfortunately, found this declaration interesting enough to peel her attention away from her drawing. She looked up with those doe-like eyes and the most adorable grin Roxas had ever seen. "Really? Who's your favorite artist?"

Roxas could feel his ears burn red, but couldn't bring himself to forfeit yet. He mustered all the self-control he could to keep a steady voice against the nerves raging a perilous war inside his body. "Uh, I'm not really into labels," He responded lamely.

Dear god, he thought. Now was definitely _not_ the right time to start taking dialogue cues from Axel.

Namine nodded politely, if not a bit confusedly. By some stroke of luck, however, she seemed to drop the conversation and return to her work. Roxas took this moment to run a hand down his face in shame. He wanted to blame his inability to function like a normal human being on the nerves still lingering from his close call with the Organization members, but he wasn't that good at fooling himself.

Roxas was wandering the room aimlessly, apparently under the false belief that constant motion would help to gather his bearings. He found himself loitering behind Namine, mere inches from her sweet-smelling hair, but willed himself to stay calm. Instead, he moved his gaze toward the canvas on the table.

"Wow, that's amazing-" Roxas complimented, pointing a finger at her artwork. Nerves affected his depth perception, apparently, because his hand bumped into a nearby pencil holder, knocking the contents to the floor. "Dammit, I'm sorry!"

Namine and Roxas both dropped to the floor at the same time, collecting the scattered pencils and tiny paint brushes that fell. "It's fine, Roxas, really," The blonde girl insisted kindly, but Roxas was still flustered as he reached for the last drawing instrument.

"I swear I'm not usually such a spaz," He sighed inwardly at himself. "Can I make it up to you? Can I buy you a coffee sometime?"

So apparently this stranger possessing Roxas' body not only admired art, but also had some _moves_.

Namine glanced up, looking very much like a deer caught in headlights, and tucked a loose strand of golden hair behind her ear. Roxas was biting down on his tongue in anticipation, but suddenly the girl was smiling and murmured a shy, "That would be nice. How about today after school?"

Roxas could've jumped in the air and cried out in celebration, but he kept it all inside. Instead, he grinned brightly and nodded his head of messy blonde hair enthusiastically. "Sounds good! And, uh… I promise I won't spill anyone's coffee."

Namine giggled adorably. Roxas mentally congratulated himself again.

"I'll meet you on the front steps after the bell," She told him, returning to her feet and placing the pencils back into their holder.

Roxas stood as well and was still nodding like an energetic bobble-head. "I'll be waiting."

For the first time in forever, he wore a smile as he hurried off to Biology.

* * *

Sora was scowling shamelessly. He wasn't usually a scowler - in fact, it was a rare moment, indeed, when the boy was caught without some kind of a smile on his face - but Kairi had just broken the news to Riku about their plans to attend the debutante ball together and his best friend's initial reaction was to nearly choke on his latte from laughter.

It was certainly a legitimate reason to scowl.

"Okay, okay, _okay_," Sora tried to calm Riku down. "C'mon, it's not _that_ funny! It's not like I've never been to a party before."

Riku had finally found the strength to swallow his mouthful of coffee without any of it coming out of his nose. The final vestiges of laughter fell past his lips, but he still wore a wide grin as he looked over at Sora. "This isn't a normal party, you know. It's a _ball_. As in, you have to wear a _tux_. And do you even know how to dance?"

Sora opened his mouth to protest.

"Dubstep doesn't count," Kairi was quick to include.

His mouth closed again.

"Honestly, I don't care about the dancing," Kairi went on, hands wrapped around her warm cup of coffee. "I don't even care about what you wear. The whole point is to prove to my parents that I'm not going to play by their silly rules anymore," She turned to Riku and beamed delightedly. "You should've seen my mom's face when I told her that Sora was going to be my date. You would've thought I'd just set fire to her designer wardrobe!"

The three friends broke into a round of hearty laughter. They sat inside Island Java, a popular after-school hangout for the students at Destiny High. It was one of those rare occasions when none of them had any prior commitments to attend to - not even track practice for Riku. They had all decided to splurge and put off their homework for a little while to spend some time together. It wasn't a trip to the beach, but it was better than nothing.

"But just a fair warning - my mom's _totally_ gonna make me dress up for this," Sora cautioned sheepishly. "She'll also probably wanna take those corny pictures of us standing together outside the house."

After meeting the McCarthy family, it was easy to see how Sora inherited his innate enthusiasm. His parents were kind and honest people with an unusually bright outlook on life despite the hardships they've had to face. Severe financial troubles loomed over the family after Sora's father unexpectedly lost his job a few months ago, leaving them on the verge of losing everything they hold dear, but their optimism never wavered. His parents worked hard to make ends meet and to provide a loving environment for Sora to live in - all while hiding their monetary concerns from their only son with smiles and good spirits.

"I guess dressing up won't be _so_ bad," Kairi admitted to the boys. "As long as I don't have to wear that _heinous_ dress my mom got me."

The tiny bell above the door rang out sweetly to signal someone else's entrance to the coffee shop. Out of sheer habit, a few pairs of eyes glanced toward the front of the shop to see who had walked inside and then returned to their previous conversations. Riku, however, allowed his gaze to linger a little bit longer than most while Kairi and Sora continued to chat happily about their upcoming event.

A boy with stylishly messy blonde hair had just walked in with Namine - at least Riku thought it was Namine. It was a bit difficult to tell now that he was seeing her in broad daylight rather than shrouded in darkness on their rooftops. The boy looked a little familiar as well - most likely a student at Destiny High that Riku had paid no attention to in the halls.

"…I think we lost him," Sora's voice managed to capture Riku's attention. The silver-haired boy turned back to his friends and blinked while Sora and Kairi exchanged a curious look.

"What's up? You're not usually that spacey," Kairi sipped from her cup pensively.

"It's nothing," Riku assured them. He gave a subtle head nod toward the front of the store and lowered his voice. "I think I know that girl."

Sora and Kairi both peeked over their coffee cups to sneak a look. "The blonde one?" Kairi wondered quietly. "Yeah, me too. We have an art class together. She's crazy talented."

"And the guy with her is Roxas, I think. We were in the same government class last year," Sora added.

Riku stole another glance while he drank from his cup. Namine was giggling shyly and Roxas appeared to be much too nervous - even from afar - for this outing to be just two friends grabbing some coffee after class. He didn't know why it mattered to him at all, but, in some strange way, it did.

"She lives next door to me," Riku mentioned distantly. "I didn't even know her name until the other night."

Kairi smirked playfully. "But I'll bet she already knew _yours_-"

"Track superstar Riku Gaines!" She and Sora sang together, followed by their whooping laughter.

Even Riku cracked a smile at his own expense, but still rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "You're both full of it."

A different ringing noise filled the air this time. Riku perked up and pulled his phone out of his pocket to find a text message from his father. He sighed before he even had the chance to read it. A text message meant that his father was now awake from his usual afternoon nap - which meant that it was officially unsafe to leave him by himself for too long. The boy stood from the table and grabbed his bag. "I gotta go. Dad's up."

"You need a hand with dinner tonight?" Sora offered cheerfully before wincing at a vivid memory. "I know that I _technically_ almost scorched your curtains with the toaster last time, but I could-"

"Don't worry about it," Riku quickly dismissed his friend's favor as he took his half-empty cup. "I think I'll just order out tonight."

Sora and Kairi exchanged another quick glance, but this time it went unnoticed by Riku. "See you tomorrow," The auburn-haired girl waved.

"Later," Riku tossed his cup into the trash on his way out and also managed to steal a final glance at Namine and Roxas. They were sitting at a small table by the window, smiling and chatting about things that Riku couldn't hear.

Instead, he left Island Java and started to make his way home - alone once again.

* * *

Axel leaned back against the brick wall in the front courtyard of Destiny High. He held his lighter out in front of him, absentmindedly flicking his thumb over the spark wheel to watch the tiny flame dance in place. Then he let it extinguish and repeated the motion a few more times before Saix walked up to join him.

"Pyro," The blue-haired senior accused casually, holding out a pack of cigarettes.

Axel smirked and took one. "Problem?"

"Of course not," Saix replied. He stood beside Axel against the wall and they lit their cigarettes in silence. The redhead watched his glow for a moment before taking a much-needed drag.

Classes had been dismissed a while ago, but a few of the older and more experienced students knew not to get caught up in the parking lot rush. The cars had dwindled down to only a few by now, but Axel didn't have to be anywhere anytime soon. He'd much rather loiter around school property and get his daily dose of nicotine before calling it a day.

"Xemnas isn't happy, you know," Saix finally spoke up, staring intensely at the boy beside him.

"Tell me something I don't know," Axel scoffed, blowing a stream of smoke from his nostrils and watching it drift into the sky. "The guy's always pissed off about _something_. Should I even bother asking why?"

Saix held his cigarette stiffly between two fingers. "It's your new _friend_, Axel. He doesn't want him creating any problems."

"Gimme a break!" Axel pushed himself off of the wall and took a step forward, arms crossed as his cigarette hung loosely from his mouth. "So, what, we're not allowed to talk to anyone else now? Why doesn't he just start regulating what we eat, too? Or how about our oxygen intake? I'm sure that'd make him happy-"

"Axel," Saix warned darkly.

The redhead spun around to glower at the fellow Organization member. "You might not mind having your leash pulled tight, but I'm not just gonna sit on my ass this time. Got it memorized?"

"Fine," Saix dropped his cigarette to the ground and stepped it out. "You can inform Xemnas of this yourself."

Axel huffed loudly and took a moment to stare out over the vacant parking lot. Hot-headed as he may be, he knew better than to seek out a confrontation with Xemnas. He put out his cigarette, too, and shrugged coolly. "Besides, it's just one teensy friendship. What kinda harm could it do?"

Saix closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose tightly. "I'll never understand your strange fixation on underclassmen."

"Jeez, I'm not some kinda pedophile," Axel threw a friendly jab at Saix's shoulder. "I just know how to pick the good ones," His grin turned devious in record time. "Which is why you and I aren't friends whatsoever!"

"Let's go, idiot," Saix heaved a sigh as he started making his way toward his car that was now stranded alone in the empty lot. "Are you coming with me?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you at your place," Axel called out, swinging his bag over his shoulder and walking toward his own car. "There's no way I'm going home tonight."

**TBC**

* * *

**A/N: I told myself that I wasn't going to focus too much on the Organization during this fic, but alas... I think it's time to give up on that battle a little. Anyway, there's a bit more plot progression in here for you guys. Enjoy the chillness while you can because soon it's gonna get CRAY-ZAY up in here. Reviews would be very, very much appreciated. :) **


	4. The greatest gift

**A/N: I tried to start working on this chapter while I was away this weekend, but I seriously can't get any work done outside the comfort of my room. Totally cranked it out, though, and now we're right on schedule. Thanks for being patient, everyone! The length is a little shorter for this one, but it was either that or have a freakishly long chapter so I decided to break it up a little. Anyway, please enjoy!**

* * *

**OUR SO-CALLED LIVES: Chapter 4 **

_"Tell me about your mother, Namine," _

_Everything was white. The walls were white, the lights were white, even the gentle-looking woman with the clipboard was wearing a white doctor's coat. Five-year-old Namine felt temporarily blinded by all the whiteness. _

_"I love my mommy," The tiny girl answered, scribbling away in her sketch book with crayons provided by the nice doctors. "She teaches me how to draw things that are pretty." _

_The woman deftly jots something down on the clipboard and then smiles. "Do you like to draw?"_

_Namine nodded vehemently, her loose locks of golden hair flopping against her porcelain face. "I want to draw even when I'm grown up." _

_"What kind of things do you like to draw?" The woman moved from her chair and kneeled beside Namine on the floor to hover over her latest sketch. _

_The picture was simple and childlike, with messy lines and uneven proportions. Yet, it still managed to demonstrate how refined her natural skills were compared to most kids of her age. On the page, a sketch of what appeared to be Namine and her mother were holding hands outside of her house. The empty corners of the paper were filled with heart bubbles, flowers, and smiley faces. _

_The woman tilted her head. "Where's your father?"_

_The little blonde ignored the question and continued scribbling out a rose above the roof. _

_"Namine," The woman tried again, still gentle. "Tell me about your father." _

_Her voice was small and distant when she finally spoke down into her sketch book. "He scares me…" _

_"Namine," The woman pressed with more concern plaguing her tone than in her past attempts. "Did your father ever try to hurt you?"_

_Silence. _

_"Namine,"_

_Again, silence. _

_"Namine…"_

"...Namine?"

The girl was suddenly pulled back to reality when she heard her name called. She blinked her faraway eyes and glanced around the rooftop, catching Riku's concerned stare from where he sat outside his window across the way. Namine looked down at her sketchpad resting in her lap. The current page was blank, but her hand still held her pencil poised above the paper.

"You okay? You really spaced out there," Riku informed her.

For the past few nights, it had become like an unspoken routine for Riku and Namine to meet on their rooftop hideout when the sun went down. Sometimes they would chat cordially beneath the stars, but other times not at all. Namine would always bring her sketchpad with her and Riku was content to lay back and listen as she worked. They both enjoyed the comfortable silence, but enjoyed each other's company even more.

"Sorry…" Namine mumbled, giving her empty page a confused stare. She couldn't remember when she zoned out, but it must've been sooner than she thought if she didn't even have time to begin a sketch. "I'm alright, really. I must've gotten lost in my thoughts."

Riku's expression relaxed a bit. He was perceptive and, therefore, didn't entirely buy into Namine's shy excuse, but he didn't want to pry. His lips turned upward into a small grin. "Well, planet earth is glad to have you back."

Namine looked up to meet Riku's gaze with a small smile of her own, eyes still a bit dazed. "I have something for you," She states plainly.

This caught Riku off-guard. The boy sat up attentively, but still raised an eyebrow in question. "Something for _me_?"

Namine said nothing. She merely set her sketchpad aside, held up a finger to signal him to wait, and then disappeared through her window. Riku didn't even have time to make any guesses before she returned - this time with a rolled up sheet of paper tucked under her arm. The blonde carefully crept to the edge of her roof - which almost made contact with Riku's - and held out the paper with a hopeful smile. Riku, still bewildered, met her at the edge and accepted the paper. Namine wrung her hands in front of her while the boy slowly unrolled the gift.

The paper in his hands was suddenly filled with a rich burst of color. It didn't take Riku long to realize that the masterpiece in front of him was of his own house - the exact view that Namine had from her rooftop. Every line, curve, and shadow was uncanny to the original, only more blended and soft from the oil pastel. The starry night sky on the paper was the same one that drifted above them.

"I finished the sketch of your house," Namine explained. "You asked to see it when I was done."

Riku could recall that request from their first conversation. Truthfully, he hadn't expected her to finish it so quickly - and he certainly hadn't expected the final product to be so stunning. "Yeah, I did… Namine, this is incredible. It looks better on paper than it does in real life. I can't accept this-"

Namine shook her head. "Don't be silly. It's a gift."

He wanted to protest. Something as beautiful as this drawing should be hanging in a museum, not Riku's bedroom wall. But Namine - sweet and gentle as she may be - seemed very intent on giving him her artwork so Riku just rolled the paper up again. "Thank you, Namine. Now I really wish I had something as special to give to you."

"You already have," The girl told him softly. "You keep me company out here every night. It's nice to have a friend. Thank you."

Riku didn't know what to say. He stole another quick glance at Namine's beautiful drawing, thinking about how much time and effort she must've put into its creation. The mere pleasure of his company didn't seem like nearly enough of an equal trade. But when Riku looked up at Namine again, he could tell that it was. There was something undistinguishable in her eyes that told him that their late-night routine meant more to her than he could've ever imagined.

So Riku smiled and replied with a simple, "You're welcome."

* * *

Axel was leaning back in his chair, idly scrolling through his phone, when Roxas came practically skipping through the door of their creative writing class. The redhead side-eyed him strangely while he settled into the seat beside him and turned to face Axel with a chipper, "Good morning!"

"Who's the clever bastard who snuck crack into your coffee this morning?" Axel quirked a brow and leaned an elbow onto the desktop with intrigue.

Roxas brushed his comment off. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you're giving Mr. Rogers a run for his money," The older boy smirked. "Don't get me wrong - it warms my little heart to see you so high on life, but - what's that about?"

Roxas bit down on his bottom lip as if contemplating whether or not to confide in Axel. The mental debate clearly didn't last long, however, because he was already scooting in closer with an ear-splitting grin. "There's this girl-"

"There usually is," Axel interjected with a good-intentioned eye roll.

"-and I finally managed to ask her out for coffee. I dunno if it was actually a date or not. I mean, I paid, but friends pay for coffee sometimes, too… Oh, god, I really hope I wasn't giving her the wrong message…"

Axel chuckled, though his expression seemed more wary than amused. He put a sturdy hand on Roxas' shoulder in reassurance. "As touching as this inner turmoil is, you gotta stop worrying. A catch like you? Your mystery girl is probably just as loopy as you are."

Roxas met Axel's eyes for a brief yet very sincere beat. Then he bit back a grin and pushed the boy's hand away playfully. "You have to say that - you're my friend."

"Just be thankful that I didn't take the opposite route," Axel warned with an impish smirk. "I could've just as easily told you that girls don't dig on guys with bird's nests for hair."

They both burst into laughter, causing quite the scene in their fairly vacant classroom. Their fellow students were either too uninterested or too unfazed to notice the mild uproar. For the past few days, it was common to hear the pair snickering or whispering about something from the back of the classroom.

"So did you finish the poetry assignment?" Roxas asked conversationally after they both regained their composure.

Axel dug around in his bag and pulled out a fresh sheet of paper, proudly smacking it down onto the desktop. "Read it and weep, my friend."

With a suspicious eyebrow raise, Roxas slid the paper toward him and scanned over the neatly scribed poem.

_" As bright as the setting sun_

_Rising over the horizon._

_A gleam, a flicker, _

_Of eternal red…"_

Roxas glanced over at Axel, who had returned to fiddling with his phone absentmindedly. "Axel," The blonde said to catch his friend's attention. "This is really _good_."

Axel peered up and noticed the earnestness that was so evident on the other boy's features. With a playful scoff, he snatched the paper back. "Gee, don't sound so shocked!"

"You know what I mean," Roxas countered defensively. "I just never knew you took this class so seriously."

Axel shrugged. "You're not the only one who signed up for this class out of interest, you know."

Roxas couldn't hold back a grin. It seemed that just when he thought he had Axel all figured out, the redhead would turn around and surprise him. The younger boy had to admit that the spontaneity was refreshing. "So are you gonna major in this after you graduate?"

"If I were planning on going to college, then I might've considered it," Axel waved a hand dismissively, but Roxas turned to him with wide eyes.

"You don't wanna go to college? At all?" Roxas wondered intently.

Axel just scoffed - less playful than before. "You heard me. But if you're so eager to change my mind then maybe you've got an extra 30 grand lying around to lend me for tuition."

"They give out scholarships," Roxas reminded his friend. "You're smart, Axel. You could get a full ride if you actually decided to apply."

"Hey, don't go all guidance counselor on me now," The redhead allowed his defiant scowl to lift into a smile as he nudged Roxas with his elbow. "I was just starting to like you."

And just like that, the mood was lightened. Roxas broke into a smile of his own and nudged Axel right back. "Oh, thanks!"

They broke into another round of snickering right as Mr. Horowitz shuffled into the room. The disheveled man gave the boys an ineffective glare before taking his post behind his desk where he began droning on to the unenthused class.

"Come back to the lunch table today," Axel requested quietly with another gentle shove to Roxas' arm. "It's like a graveyard over there without you around to liven things up."

Roxas snuck a look at Axel. "Yeah, I think I can stop by."

"Stop by?" The senior snorted indelicately. "You mean as long as you don't already have plans with your _girlfriend_?"

In an instant, Roxas flushed as vibrantly as Axel's hair. "Cut it out!" He swatted at the boy next to him, which only fueled Axel's amusement even more.

"Mr. Eberhardt, Mr. Thorne," Horowitz announced from the front of the room in a manner that failed to muster up any kind of threat. Still, Roxas snapped his attention to the front of the room, but Axel was too busy putting on his best cheeky grin. "Is there something you need to tell the class or should I write you both up for detention?"

Axel took a stand as if he were making some grand announcement. "As much as I love being the poster child for Destiny High's detention center, Roxas and I plan on behaving ourselves. We promise. Cross our hearts."

Mr. Horowitz was still looking dead to the world as Axel plopped back down into his seat. Roxas covered up a smile behind his hand.

"See?" Axel whispered as he leaned back in his chair, smiling mischievously and resting his hands behind his head. "Never a dull moment with you around, buddy."

* * *

If Kairi's house was the largest on Destiny Island, then Sora's was most certainly the smallest. It was just enough room for the three residents (four counting Sora's energetic golden retriever, Pluto), but not a single square inch of space went to waste. To Sora, it was home. His friends never judged or commented - not even Kairi, who had the most reason to out of anyone. Instead, she often praised his home on being so quaint and efficient, lamenting about how her monstrous house had rooms that she'd never even been in before.

But the most redeeming quality about the McCarthy home was that it came with a basement that was perfect for sleepovers.

The final minutes of _The Breakfast Club_ played softly in the background while Sora dug his hand into the popcorn bowl. Kairi sat beside him amongst their giant nest of pillows and blankets with a collection of small seashells from the beach spread out before her. She held a single piece of cotton string in her hand and carefully selected only the best shells to slide onto the thread.

"If I were in The Breakfast Club, I'd want to be Judd Nelson," Sora decided as he fell back onto a pile of blankets. "You could be Molly Ringwald and Riku could be Emilio Estevez since he's an athlete."

Kairi made a face. "I always thought that Riku would be the more broody guy."

"I can be a bad boy, too, you know," Sora argued with a small pout.

Kairi took one look at her friend in his red heart boxers, white socks, and baggy Green Day t-shirt and giggled. "Sora McCarthy, you don't have a bad bone in your body!"

The brunette gave a disgruntled groan of protest and flipped over so that he could bury his face into a pillow. "Ack ood fah untoo…"

"What?"

Sora turned his head so that his mouth wasn't pressed into the pillow. "I could if I wanted to!"

"No, you couldn't!" Kairi laughed, pulling her attention away from her craft long enough to toss a popcorn kernel at Sora's head. It bounced off his mess of hair and fell somewhere within the nest. "If you were anything other than sweet then you wouldn't be you. And _you're_ the one I asked to be my date, remember?"

Even while laying face down in the pillows, Kairi could see Sora's body tense up a little. Ever since the reality dawned on the boy that he'd be accompanying Kairi to Destiny Island's biggest social event of the season, he tended to clam up whenever the subject was brought up. Sora, who could swim miles out into the ocean and scale palm trees with ease, was scared of a debutante ball.

"'Course I remember. It's all I've been thinking about for days," Sora mumbled in an attempt to sound cheerful, but Kairi knew better than that.

She put her craft aside and nudged Sora's leg with her foot. "Parties are supposed to be fun, you know."

"Yeah, but it's just like Riku said - this isn't a normal party," Sora quickly scrambled up to a cross-legged sitting position, facing Kairi with an expression that she rarely saw plaguing the boy's face - a look of distress. "What if I use the wrong fork when I eat or step on your million dollar shoes when we're dancing? You're really gonna regret inviting me after I make _both_ of us look like losers."

"Who is this guy talking?" Kairi demanded as she, too, turned to face her friend so that they sat knee to knee. "Sora, these people aren't the kind of people you want to waste time trying to impress. All they have is a lot of money - their _parents_ have a lot of money. Besides, when have we ever cared about being losers? I don't mind being a loser. As long as I'm a loser with you."

Some of the sparkle was slowly making its way back into Sora's eyes, but before he could say anything in reply, Kairi reached for her string of seashells and tied the two ends of the thread together. Then she reached for Sora's hand and slipped the bracelet onto his wrist. "It's a good luck charm. I made one for me and Riku, too. It'll help you find the courage to get through this party and whatever else scares you, mister tough guy. It'll also remind you that out of all the other dates my mom would've lined up for me, I chose you."

Their hands were still touching. Sora was suddenly hyper-aware of this fact. Their fingers were kind of tangling together intimately and their faces were only inches apart. Kairi's eyes were gleaming a deep blue color even in the dim lighting of the basement and _god, her hands were still crazy soft._

The next thing they both knew, their faces became even closer together and Sora pressed his lips against Kairi's.

Sora didn't know how long they stayed like that. Five seconds? A minute?

He also decided that Kairi's lips were just as soft as her hands.

The moment ended much too soon when Kairi started gently pushing against Sora's chest to separate their lips. The girl's eyes were wide and unblinking as they latched themselves onto Sora, her cheeks rosy and flustered. "Sora…"

"I-I don't know why I just did that… Oh god, Kairi, I'm really sorry. I'm a total idiot, I know I am," He fumbled quickly through his words to match the pace of his relentless heart pounding against his chest.

Kairi's expression didn't change. She seemed to be stunned into silence as she shook her head slowly, her mouth pulled tightly closed.

"I just wasn't thinking and then it just… happened," Sora prattled on, tangling a hand into his messy brown hair.

"Let's just go to sleep," Kairi finally replied. Her voice sounded upset - or maybe that was disappointment. Sora could feel his stomach dropping with unease as Kairi retreated to her side of the pillow nest and laid down to face the opposite wall.

He watched her back rise and fall with every breath for a moment or two. The credits of _The Breakfast Club_ still played on softly in the background. "Kairi?" He whispered.

There was no reply. Whether it was because she already fell asleep or was ignoring him, Sora didn't know.

Instead of pondering, he scooted over to the opposite side - making sure to give Kairi plenty of space - and laid himself down for what was bound to be a restless sleep.

**TBC**

* * *

**A/N: Since this was a tiny chapter, I'll try to get the next one up sooner rather than later. Also, in case ya'll didn't catch it the first time, Axel's "poetry assignment" was heavily influenced by his line in 358/2 when he tells Roxas why the sun sets red. In related news, please excuse that awful excuse for poetry that I attempted to pass off as impressive. I'm not a poetry person, but Axel, sadly, is. So let's all pretend that that's a stunning piece of literature. Okay? Okay.  
**


	5. Save me, San Francisco

**A/N: First of all, another round of enthusiastic thanks to everyone who has been reading, reviewing, and sending me questions via PM/tumblr! I'm going to elaborate on a few at the end of this chapter. But for now, enjoy the next installment! **

* * *

**OUR SO-CALLED LIVES: Chapter 5**

At seven 'o clock, Roxas heard the doorbell from where he sat on the living room couch. He pulled his attention away from a very gripping episode of CSI: Miami long enough to lock eyes with his mother, who perked up from behind the kitchen counter with a bowl of mashed potatoes in hand.

Tonight was the night - the night that Roxas had been dreading since the beginning of the week. Despite his best attempts to get out of a 'family dinner' with Mr. Dental Hygienist, his mother was adamant that he put his best foot forward and join them. Roxas could think of a million other things he'd rather be doing this evening (underwater basket weaving was among them), but the night wouldn't be a complete waste. After all, he was somewhat curious to see what kind of creep his mother was inviting over this time.

"I'll get it," Roxas quickly stood, but was halted by his mother.

"No, no, I will," She insisted frantically, waving a dismissive hand at her son. "Be a dear and start setting the table, will you, kiddo?"

His mother set the bowl of food down and stepped out from behind the counter, smoothing out the bottom of her mini skirt. Roxas made a discontented face. Holly Eberhardt was only seventeen years old when she had Roxas (one of the many reasons why her marriage with his father failed, Roxas liked to believe) so her affinity toward skin-tight apparel wasn't entirely surprising. Still, she was his mother and no matter how young she was, Roxas couldn't stand the sight of her dressing like some kind of eager-to-impress teenager.

He just sighed in reply and started to make his way into the kitchen as the doorbell rang once again. Holly gave her blonde hair a final fluff and then hurried to the front door. Roxas set out three plates at the dinner table, consciously avoiding the seat that his father used to occupy when he still lived at home. All he could hear were the muffled voices from the foyer.

"Come in, come in!"

"Holly, you're looking positively _delicious_ tonight…"

Roxas could've sworn he heard kissing and giggling.

"Oh, stop that! Here, the kitchen's this way."

Roxas tried not to gag on the spot. He hadn't even seen this man yet and he already knew he was a tool. But as soon as they stepped into the kitchen, his suspicions were confirmed.

His mother was holding onto the arm of a man who stood at roughly six feet tall. His dirty blonde hair was trimmed short around his face - which seemed to be permanently frozen into a smirk - and a pair of black RayBan sunglasses were perched on top of his head. He wore a crisp button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows tucked into fitted jeans and appeared to be very fit even beneath his designer ensemble.

"This is Seifer - _Dr. Almasy_," Holly introduced like a smitten pre-teen. "And this is my son, Roxas."

The man - 'Dr. Almasy' - took a step forward and extended a strong hand outward. "So we finally meet, huh, kid?"

Roxas barely blinked. He stood motionless on the other side of the table and stared distastefully at Seifer's offered hand.

Holly began to laugh, clearly as an attempt to mask the awkwardness of their interaction - or lack thereof. "Roxas, honey, remember to mind your manners."

He absolutely hated when she spoke to him like a disobedient ten-year-old.

"Welcome to our home, doctor," Roxas muttered grimly as he finished up the last place setting at the table.

Seifer cleared his throat and retracted his hand stiffly. "Just, uh - call me Seifer, kid."

Roxas walked by the couple to make a beeline for the kitchen when his mother clapped her hands together resolutely. "Alright then! Sweetheart, you take a seat at the table while I give Roxas a hand with the food."

She followed close behind her son until they were safely out of earshot. Then she grabbed Roxas' wrist to turn him around and whisper venomously at his unamused expression. "Listen up, young man. I don't know what on earth you're trying to do here, but you better start behaving yourself-"

"Mom, he's wearing a pair of _sunglasses_ on his head to dinner," He pointed out exasperatedly.

The remark went unacknowledged. "I really like this guy so, for once, you need to think about _my_ happiness."

Roxas wanted to scream with laughter. He wanted to tell his mom that every decision made in their house was for _her_ happiness. He wanted to tell her that her selfishness often gets in the way of her parenting and that, ever since the divorce, she's been the most careless mother he's ever known.

But he remained silent.

"And it wouldn't kill you to make a little pleasant conversation tonight," Holly reminded him with a stern look as she grabbed the salad bowl off the counter and disappeared into the dining room again.

The blonde boy took a moment to himself as he listened to his mother cheerfully greet her boyfriend when she walked back to the table. He inhaled and exhaled slowly, glancing down to notice his knuckles turning a bit white as he gripped the edge of the countertop. Tonight might be more difficult than he originally thought. Still, after another personal moment, Roxas grabbed the remaining plates of food and made his way back to the table. He found his mother sitting beside Seifer, serving him a helping of tossed salad as she giggled like a naive bimbo.

Roxas placed the plates onto the tabletop and then plopped himself down into the chair across from Seifer.

"So, kid, your mom tells me that you're in high school," Seifer mentioned suddenly as Holly started scooping mashed potatoes onto his plate.

Roxas blinked. "Um. Yeah."

"So what do you do? You a sports man like I was?" He turned to Roxas' mother with that same smirky expression and a wink. "Twilight High football. Varsity fullback, 1996."

Holly grinned appreciatively and started filling her own plate with food. "I've tried to convince Roxas to go out for some teams, but he just doesn't-"

"I wanna be a writer," Roxas spoke up pointedly, looking up from his plate where he'd been pushing a forkful of salad around aimlessly. "I'm interested in writing."

Seifer appeared to stifle a chuckle behind a piece of over-cooked chicken, which earned him another glare from across the table. The man cleared his throat and focused his arrogant smirk over at Roxas. "Writing? What do you plan on doing with a degree in _that_?"

Roxas could feel his patience wearing thinner and thinner by the second. He wanted nothing more than to throw his fork across the table at that pompous smirky face, but instead he answered through tight lips, "Write things."

"Write things, he says!" Seifer howled with laughter, nudging Holly amusedly with his elbow, and then pointed his fork directly at Roxas. "The kid's still young. He's got some time to figure things out."

"He's very stubborn, no matter how much I try to encourage him," Holly added in a lower volume as if she were trying to be inconspicuous.

Again, yet another layer of Roxas' tolerance was torn at the seams. "I'm right here. I can still hear you-"

"Tell me, kid. You got a girlfriend?" Seifer lifted an eyebrow-almost like a silent challenge.

The question sent Roxas mentally backpedalling for a moment. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but the blonde boy could see that - judging by the man's cocky disposition - he was attempting to prove some kind of point. After a second or two of frantic blinking and fumbling over a few words, he responded, "Well, no."

"Maybe you would if you played sports and said more than a few words, huh?" Seifer, again, turned to Holly with riotous laughter and - much to Roxas' outrage - his mother actually joined in.

And just like that, Roxas could feel his composure snap in half like a small twig. The blonde boy dropped his fork, letting it clamor against his plate loudly, and shot a dangerous look at his mother. "Are you seriously not going to do anything?"

Holly's laughter stopped on a dime, but Seifer still chortled to himself quietly while the woman met her son's intense glare. "Roxas," She began.

"No," He interrupted firmly. "Sorry, mom, but I don't care how much you like this guy. If you think I'm gonna sit here silently while he spouts this bullshit-"

Seifer was suddenly steely at a moment's notice. "Hey, now listen here, kid-"

"Roxas!" He roared, surprising everyone at the table by jumping to his feet to glower at the man in front of him. "My name is _Roxas - _not kid. And no, I don't play football or have a girlfriend and I don't give a _shit_ what you think about it."

Holly stood next, slamming her palms down onto the tabletop. "Roxas, that's enough!"

"You can pretend all you want, mom, but I know you don't care," He continued, averting his tangent toward his mother. "You don't care about anything but yourself and that's _exactly_ why dad left us!"

He didn't have time to listen to the uproar that occurred after that. Roxas could feel his legs taking him away - fast. He ran through the kitchen, the hallway, and out the front door in a blur. The salty outside air whipped against his skin as he ran across his yard and down the street. His muscles burned with exertion, but that was the least of his troubles. The burn distracted him from his own raging mind that was quickly filling up with memories from years and years of a broken home.

Maybe he'd run to Hayner's and ask to sleep on the couch in his basement. He never seemed to mind, anyway.

* * *

"…Hold up."

"You heard me."

"Did you seriously…?"

"I know,"

"You _kissed_ her?"

Sora groaned remorsefully and let his head gently fall back against the row of lockers with a heavy thud. He had expected this kind of reaction from Riku after telling him what happened with Kairi. The three of them have always been as thick as thieves - kissing just seemed like crossing some kind of line. Even if it had felt so strangely right at the time.

"I _know_," The brunette mumbled. "I did that thing I always do when I don't think things through before I just do them."

Riku nodded as he removed his chemistry textbook from his locker and stuffed it into his bag. Being friends with Sora for a majority of his life gave him extensive knowledge in the boy's particular brand of impulsiveness. "And then what happened?"

"She looked really confused… And then we just went to sleep without talking about it," Sora explained, feeling his stomach drop at the memory of that evening. "The next morning was _so_ awkward. We barely even looked at each other when she was getting ready to leave. And that's another thing - she just _left_. We didn't even have breakfast or anything. We _always_ make pancakes together, Riku!"

Sora was verging on hysterical as he grabbed onto Riku's arm. The silver-haired boy gave his best friend a pointed look and closed his locker door. "You're driving yourself insane. You know that, right?"

Riku started walking down the hallway, Sora falling into step beside him. "Why are you being so weirdly calm about this? What if I ruined everything?"

The sly grin spreading across Riku's face spoke volumes as he glanced at Sora from his peripheral vision. "If I'm being totally honest, I always thought there was something going on between you two."

"Wha…?" Sora's eyes bulged in shock and his face quickly flushed a vibrant shade of red. "And you thought _now_ would be a good time to bring that up?"

Riku shrugged. "Well, why not? It's as good a time as any."

They continued to walk and Sora suddenly fell silent, but Riku could practically hear the gears turning around inside his friend's head. As they approached their classroom, Sora finally spoke up in an uncharacteristically soft tone. "So you don't… you don't mind if…?"

The taller boy stopped outside their classroom and turned to face Sora. He wore an earnest smile and placed a hand on Sora's shoulder. "You're both my best friends. I don't mind as long as you're both happy."

Sora's troubled expression quickly dropped into a bright, grateful smile. He lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Riku's waist in a vise grip. "Thanks, Riku, you're the best."

Riku, even after years of knowing about Sora's tendency for physical contact, was still taken aback by the hug. He patted the boy on the back and chuckled good-humoredly. "Don't mention it."

The pair broke apart just as a familiar blur of auburn hair rounded the corner. Riku waved as Kairi passed them in the hall, but he could feel Sora tense up a little from beside him. Kairi smiled in return, but her posture immediately changed once she locked eyes with the brunette.

"Hey, Kairi!" Sora called out eagerly. The girl looked like a startled animal as she quickly shuffled past her friends and disappeared down the hall.

Sora gave another defeated groan, but Riku was quick to retaliate with a dose of reassuring words. "C'mon, it's freaking me out seeing you so anxious. Everything's going to be fine."

"How do you know?" Sora wondered pitifully.

"'Cause I'm on the case," Riku replied with a confident smirk as he extended his fist toward Sora. "Right?"

Sora examined Riku's offered fist for a moment, but then, in his usual resilient fashion, perked up with a determined grin of his own. "Right," He agreed, meeting Riku's hand in an enthusiastic fist bump.

"Good," The silver-haired boy headed through the doorway of their classroom as Sora slung an arm over his friend's shoulders and followed him inside.

"Let's go bond some ions!"

* * *

Axel slid a grande white mocha toward Roxas when the blonde boy took a seat at the Organization's lunch table, letting his forehead plop down against the tabletop surface.

"If your cryptic texts from the other night are any indication, then I thought you might need this," The redhead explained with dramatic sympathy.

Roxas said nothing, but blindly reached out a hand to wrap around the cup of coffee.

"So," Axel began again. His tone wasn't usually gentle and it still wasn't - not really - but Roxas could detect his effort. "Not one of your better family dinners, huh?"

"I finally told my mom what a miserable parent she is, yelled at her prick of a boyfriend, and ran out of the house for the rest of the night. So no. It sucked balls," Roxas grumbled into the tabletop.

"Man, I would've paid a shit-ton of money to be a fly on the wall for that," Axel mused. Roxas lifted his head to throw his friend a glare. "Right. Yeah, sorry. Supportive friend - yay Roxas!"

The blonde had to crack a smile as he brought the cup to his lips to take a sip, but wound up practically choking on it as the liquid made its way down his throat. "…Is there alcohol in this?" Roxas stared incredulously at the cup.

Axel scrunched his nose as he brought his index finger and thumb close together. "Tiny bit of whiskey. It'll take the edge off."

Roxas stared uneasily at the drink, shrugged, and took another small sip.

"You know, if you want my honest opinion," Axel went on with a nonchalant wave of his hand. "I think whatever you said to those fools was well-deserved."

"You have no idea," Roxas muttered darkly. "I told my mom that my dad left us because she doesn't care about anyone but herself. She always pretends like that stuff doesn't hurt her, but… I know it does."

Axel raised a single eyebrow. "And Mr. Dental Hygienist?"

"The douchebag levels were off the charts," Roxas growled. His fingers lingered around the coffee and he fixed his gaze aimlessly at the cardboard cup. "Sometimes I wish I could just run away."

The redhead tilted his head in intrigue. "Oh yeah? And where would you run off to?"

Roxas shrugged, his fingers gently running down the length of the cup. "Maybe San Francisco so I could live with my dad."

"Remind me again why you haven't already ditched the crazy lady to live with this amazing dad of yours," Axel smirked.

"He's just really busy," Roxas explained softly. "Every now and then I try to call or send him a letter, but I haven't gotten a reply yet."

Axel considered his friend's words. He didn't have much experience with good fathers, but he knew that they should probably make time to contact their sons. Still, Roxas seemed to be holding onto his remaining shreds of hope with all his might - the hope that one day his father _would_ write him back. Axel found it admirable, if nothing else.

"Well, that makes two of us with incognito fathers," The senior ran a hand through his fiery locks as his gaze became a little pensive. "Mine was hauled away to prison for drug trafficking ten years ago. Haven't seen or heard from him since."

The casualness of which Axel spoke made Roxas' jaw drop open a little bit in surprise. "I thought you said you didn't have a family," He said bewilderedly.

"I wasn't lying," Axel secured his gaze matter-of-factly on Roxas. "Sure, I've got parents, but a _family_ isn't supposed to abandon you. Got it memorized?"

Roxas nodded slowly, still a bit speechless.

"So when you plan on making your grand escape to San Francisco," Axel pointed his thumb up at himself with a characteristically impudent grin. "Count me in."

The blonde's lips carefully lifted into a smile. Even though his plans of running away were most likely a reckless pipe dream, it gave him some sense of hope to know that he had a loyal friend on his side.

"You bet."

* * *

"You're painting again," Namine commented, pointing out the obvious as she walked into her studio.

It wasn't a studio, exactly. It was the guest bedroom that she'd unofficially turned into a makeshift art room, complete with standing easels, utensils, and a desk for sketching. Namine tended to be the only person who ever stepped foot inside that room, but today she walked in to find her mother sitting in front of the easel and a half-painted canvas, brush in hand.

"I hope you don't mind that I'm using your supplies," Her mother said.

Namine Lunette was the spitting image of her mother, Evangeline. They were both long, slender, and blonde with round ocean-colored eyes and a porcelain complexion. Even at a young age, Namine never minded being compared to her mother. Evangeline was the kind of woman that people aspired to be like - beautiful, fair, and compassionate. But most of all, Namine aspired to reach her mother's level of artistic skill.

In her younger years, Evangeline was a commissioned artist who sold her paintings to many different venues around the Island and even a few in Twilight Town's museums. After her daughter was born, however, her artistic endeavors became purely recreational. Namine hadn't seen her mother paint in years despite having such fond childhood memories of dancing around her backyard while Evangeline painted the scene with a smile. The final result now hung above their fireplace and has since remained one of Namine's most treasured possessions.

Because in a painting, a moment can stay happy forever.

"I don't mind," Namine insisted as she pulled a stool up beside her mother to watch her paint. The woman's hand still moved with perfect precision and poise even after all the years. "It's just such a pleasant surprise to find you here."

"Oh, don't exaggerate," Evangeline said, never faltering in her brush strokes. "It's only been about…"

Namine smiled patiently. "Ten years, mom."

Her mother shook her head fondly. "You remember everything, don't you?"

"I _don't_ remember you deciding to pick this up again," Namine recalled smartly.

"We're being truthful today, are we?" Evangeline glanced to the side at her daughter. "Then who was that boy who stopped by the other day?"

Namine swiveled her stool around to hide her blushing cheeks. "_Mother_."

The blonde woman's silvery laughter filled the room. "He was very cute, Nami, is he someone special?"

"His name is Roxas," Namine admitted softly. "He's a special friend."

Evangeline looked away from her canvas, grinning knowingly. "Well, I'm very happy to hear that you're making some lovely friends. Your father and I were hoping that you would."

"Dad isn't here," Namine was quick to remind her as she spun back around in her seat.

Her mother sighed as she lowered her brush from the canvas. "He comes home in a week, Nami."

Namine wrings her fingers together gently as she murmurs a quiet, "I know."

"The doctors have all said that he's made great improvement," Evangeline assured the small blonde girl. "We should be very proud of him."

Namine nodded slowly. "I am."

In a fluid motion, Evangeline stood from her seat and leaned over to cup Namine's cheek in her pale hand. "Nothing is going to hurt my beautiful girl," She promised firmly.

There was still a slight nagging nerve tugging at the insides of Namine's mind, but if there was anyone in the world to trust, it would be her mother. She managed to lift the corners of her mouth just a bit as Evangeline slid her hand away and exited the room. Namine got a better look at the nearly finished canvas resting on the easel. It was a view of the sky from their window, blended and shaded into a flawless blue. The clouds appeared soft as they drifted across the top of the painting and a few dark specks depicted birds on their journey through the sky.

It was a moment that would stay forever perfect.

**TBC**

* * *

**A/N: I swear on all that is holy that this fic isn't going to be all angst and drama. I just kinda realized that everyone's story is taking a pretty serious turn all at the same time, but fear not - humor and happiness is on the horizon! I'm just getting some plots rolling along, but believe me when I say that I believe in happy endings. :) **

**Have I mentioned how awesome you all are? Only once this chapter? Really? Shame on me because ya'll are the for keeping up with this story. I've _loved_ reading your reviews/answering your questions. In fact, some of you have brought up really good points that I thought I should mention here for everyone else to see. Number 1: No, we have _not_ been introduced to all of the characters involved yet. Stay tuned! Number 2: No, I don't know how many chapters this fic will be in total. Quite a few, most likely. Number 3: I CAN'T TELL YOU, SILLY. If I gave away the intended endgame pairings now then it'd ruin all the fun, now wouldn't it? ;)**

**Gripping stuff, no? Anyway, feel free to hit up my inbox at any time and stay tuned for the next chapter. Stay fabulous, everyone!**

**And yes, that is a Train reference in the chapter title. Do I regret it? (A little) No, sir. **


	6. The pantry of romance

**A/N: This chapter ate my Friday, but I wanted to get the next installment posted before I leave for yet another weekend. This time I won't be back until Tuesday so hopefully this 'ol thing will hold everyone over until I get back. Enjoy! **

* * *

**OUR SO-CALLED LIVES: Chapter 6**

Riku had promised Sora that the Kairi situation would soon be resolved. He was still a little uncertain as to how, exactly, but Sora didn't usually have an issue with putting blind trust in people. He firmly believed that Riku must've had some kind of master plan hidden away inside his head that he was waiting to reveal in the grandest fashion.

But that was before Sora realized that the situation wasn't making any progress whatsoever.

The first week of the silent treatment was slightly torturous, but bearable. Sora and Riku sat at their lunch table alone, lamenting about the trials and tribulations that accompanied being friends with a teenaged girl. Sora walked home after school by himself when Riku had track practice, avoiding their usual trek past the beach. Kairi had even convinced her friend Selphie to trade seats with her in english class so that she didn't have to endure the fifty minutes of sitting beside Sora in awkward silence.

The second week was when Sora's emotional stability really started to unravel. On that Tuesday evening, he called Riku in a panic.

"I know they say it's only a myth," Sora began in a voice that sounded more than a little choked up. "But do you think that anyone's _actually_ ever died from heartbreak?"

Riku, who wasn't used to putting on his patient-and-comforting-best-friend hat this often, tried not to sigh directly into the receiver. "The only thing that's breaking is your sanity."

"It's been eleven days and two hours since it happened-" On the other end, Riku snorted. "C'mon, Riku. She hasn't said _anything_ to you about this?"

The silver-haired boy balanced his cell phone between his shoulder and ear as he finished up washing the dishes piled up in the kitchen sink. "Not a word. And if I try to bring it up, all I get is some thinly veiled excuse about how she needs to suddenly meet for a student council meeting or hurry home to feed her cat."

"Kairi doesn't even have a cat," said Sora after a brief pause.

This time, Riku did sigh into the receiver. "So not the time, Sora…"

"Hey, I have an idea!" Sora exclaimed with a sudden bout of excitement. Riku mentally braced himself for what was about to be said because Sora's ideas very often lacked common sense and strategy. "What if I wrote her a letter? I could use all these fancy words to tell her how sorry I am."

Riku quirked a skeptical brow, although Sora couldn't see, but it was more than evident in his tone. "And then are you going to send it by carrier pigeon?"

"I'm being serious, Riku!" Sora huffed.

"So am I," The other boy countered. "I know it sucks to admit it, but this is one conversation that you gotta have in person."

Sora flopped backwards onto his bed and grumbled up at the ceiling, "Yeah, well, you're kinda forgetting that Kairi won't come within a hundred mile radius of me."

Riku put down the soapy dish in his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, sensing a migraine coming on. This was worse than the time clumsy seven-year-old Sora accidentally kicked over Kairi's sandcastle and Riku had to host a vicious peer-mediating session until the girl agreed to stop chucking seashells at the poor boy's head. This was _much_ worse and it required Riku to unleash the big guns.

"Well," Riku began as casually as possible. "Why don't you come over tomorrow night. I can take you up on that offer to help me with dinner while we brainstorm some plans. Deal?"

Sora rolled over onto his stomach, mumbling impatiently. He'd gone through this much Kairi-less torture already so what was the harm in one more day?

"Okay, deal."

* * *

For the entirety of Roxas' academic career, he'd only belonged to one lunch table - Hayner, Pence, and Olette's - and he was perfectly content with this fact. After all, Roxas wasn't the most sociable of butterflies at Destiny High.

Which was why he found it very strange to start splitting up his lunch periods between three different locations.

There would always be his three best friends, who were all very supportive of Roxas' new relationships - even Hayner, much to the blonde's surprise. Even if he was only encouraging it to turn the semester into some kind of pseudo spy mission. And then there was the Organization. Roxas was proud to admit that he'd almost completely memorized everyone's name at this point, despite the fact that the only person who ever really spoke to him at the table was Axel.

Lastly, but certainly not least, there was Namine. Roxas' infatuated and hormone-ridden mind told him that he enjoyed these lunches the most. The blonde girl spent her lunch time in the vacant art classroom, which wasn't one of Roxas' usual stomping grounds, but he was happy to join her on the days when he wasn't already committed to his other friends.

They'd chat over their lunches and, in Namine's case, her latest art assignment. Sometimes Roxas would humor her and create his own art project, which usually only consisted of colored pencil stick people on paper from the scrap bin. His attempts always seemed to make Namine smile so, in his opinion, it was well worth the effort.

"Oh my _god_," Roxas complained, dropping his colored pencil to shake around his dominant hand. "I think I'm doing something wrong. It can't be normal to get this many hand cramps."

Namine giggled over her canvas. "You get used to it after a while. It just takes time."

"Well, I think I'll leave the artsy things to you, then," He held up his scrap paper that now looked like the final result of a toddler's heyday with colored pencils. "I'm not exactly inclined."

"Your stick figures show a lot of promise," She teased sweetly. Roxas gave her a look and then they both started laughing.

He leaned back in his chair and pushed his art supplies away from him. That was enough embarrassment for one lunch period. Roxas glanced over at Namine's canvas, which was quickly gaining color with every masterful stroke of the girl's brush. "I don't get how yours end up looking so amazing," He mused. "It just looks like random brush strokes to me."

"There's an intricate method to this madness," Namine grinned. Her eyes flickered away from her work - such a simple gesture that Roxas knew meant more than the average person - and seemed to beckon Roxas toward her. "Would you like to see?"

For a brief moment, Roxas just blinked mindlessly as if she could possibly be speaking to someone else in the room. Seeing as they were the only two occupants, however, the blonde responded with an uncertain step forward. "Do you have experience dealing with hopeless cases?"

Namine shook her head of golden tresses. "I happen to be an excellent teacher so just come over here, silly."

The corner of Roxas' lip twitched upward as he closed the rest of the distance between them. He stood over Namine's shoulder, staring down at her artwork that was far more intimidating than a canvas ought to be. The small girl offered Roxas her paintbrush and he accepted it with a clumsy grip as her own hand wrapped around his. Roxas could feel his heartbeat inside his ears, but still allowed Namine to lead his limp hand around the painting.

He wasn't actually doing anything - all of the credit and skill still belonged to Namine - but Roxas felt honored that she would willingly share a moment that always seemed so intimate to the young artist.

"See?" said Namine as she continued to move Roxas' hand around the canvas. "The strokes are very gentle and go from dark to light."

Roxas was more focused on his close proximity to Namine than her painting technique. Her golden hair was right under his nose and her soft hand was gently holding his. He could even feel the warmth resonating from her body beside his own.

"I - yeah. I guess that kinda makes sense," It didn't.

"It's easier to detect in some earlier expressionism pieces," Namine went on. "We should go to one of the art museums in Twilight Town some time."

Roxas nodded quickly. "Oh yeah, for sure."

He remembered back when he was very young. His parents would often take him to see the various museums in downtown Twilight Town. It was the ideal day trip for his parents - it was an activity they could do together that didn't require any interaction. Roxas, however, didn't find it quite as ideal. He would nap in his stroller or yank on his father's pant leg until it was time to go home.

"…don't you think, Roxas?"

The blonde boy blinked his faraway eyes as he returned to reality. Namine's words ended expectantly, as if waiting for a response, but Roxas didn't actually hear what the young girl had been asking him.

"Uh, I'm sorry?" He floundered.

Namine grinned amusedly. "I asked if you have any objections to getting paint on your nose."

Roxas wrinkled his brow. "Paint on my nose? Why would I have-"

Before another word could be spoken, Namine spun and took the paint brush with her, quickly dabbing it against the tip of Roxas' nose. The boy barely had time to flinch, but when he realized that a spot of bright red was covering his nose, a grin stretched across his face.

"Oh, you're gonna be sorry!" Roxas dipped his finger in the paint tray and swiped it across Namine's porcelain cheek in retaliation. The small girl squealed and tried to twist away, but to no avail.

As they waged a playful paint war - giggling and teasing and touching - Roxas decided that he kinda-maybe-almost liked art after all.

* * *

Riku honestly didn't think it was possible, but when he went to open the front door, he found Sora on the other side with his hair even more of a brunette mess than it normally was. His friend was also donning sweatpants and a hoodie on backwards, which was an interesting change from his usual ensemble of t-shirts, cargo shorts, and worn-in sneakers. He was also wearing a deep frown and that, Riku thought, was the strangest part of all.

"Your hoodie is on backwards," Riku observed quite plainly as he stood in the doorway and gave his friend a quick once-over.

Sora looked downward as if he hadn't known about his fashion faux pas until right this moment. Then he sighed and let his shoulders droop when he glanced back up at Riku. "I guess that explains why my neck was so itchy on the way over here."

Although he'd never admit it, Riku always thought that Sora pulled off that 'cute and helpless' act pretty well. That's why he couldn't even pretend to be annoyed when he stepped to the side and invited his friend in. "Just get inside, bonehead."

Sora shuffled into the house and spun around in time to see Riku shutting the front door. "So about this master plan," The brunette began hopefully. "I was thinking that maybe we could-"

"No time," Riku interrupted calmly. He put a hand on Sora's shoulder and led him down the hallway to the kitchen. "Dinner first, then we'll talk business."

"But Riku-"

"Go into the pantry and get some pasta from the shelf, alright?" The silver-haired boy ushered Sora to the pantry door, which was already slightly ajar. Sora cast a glance over his shoulder at his friend, perplexed by his sudden haste. Still, he did as he was told and opened the pantry door.

"Hey, Riku, is bow tie pasta okay…?"

Sora nearly choked on his own gasp when he opened the door to reveal Kairi. The girl was facing him, box of pasta in hand, and staring as if she'd just experienced an otherworldly encounter.

"K-Kairi?" Sora stuttered incredulously.

She looked as if she were attempting to hide behind the small box of pasta. "Sora, what are you doing here?!"

He fumbled over a few nonsensical syllables before managing, "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Riku invited me over to help with dinner-"

"But he invited _me_ over, too-"

A charging force pushed into Sora's back and catapulted him into the pantry. He cried out, stumbling forward until he fell into Kairi, sandwiching the girl between his body and the back shelf.

"Riku!" Kairi growled out threateningly. But she was too late. The pantry door closed with a resounding slam, trapping them together in the darkness. "Open the door _now_!"

They both heard the tell-tale click of the lock. "Not until you two talk it out and fix this," Riku's muffled voice explained from the other side of the door.

"So _this_ was your big master plan?" Sora grumbled, rolling off of Kairi and feeling around blindly in the darkness. "Keeping us captive until we worked it out?"

"I didn't have a choice," Came Riku's definitive reply, followed by a soft sigh. "Look. You two are the ones who decided to go to this stupid ball together. And it's going to be even more awkward if you aren't speaking to each other. I'm sick of playing the middle man and I'm sick of having two best friends who won't even reply to our group chat anymore. So start talking."

There was silence. Kairi turned her head, her eyes adjusting to the darkness well enough so that she could settle her tentative gaze on Sora.

"Your hoodie is on backwards," She commented quietly.

Sora tugged on said hoodie shamelessly. "Yeah, I know."

If they weren't in the midst of an awkward spell, Kairi would've affectionately called him a loser and Sora would've done something ridiculous like pull his hood over his face and then they both would've bust out into laughter until they were breathless on the floor.

Kairi missed that. Sora missed it, too.

"Hey, Kai," Sora piped up softly, quickly giving in. "I'm really sorry."

To his surprise, it didn't take Kairi long to respond with a sincere, "No, _I'm_ sorry."

"You don't have to apologize. I'm the one who… _kissed_ you," He spoke the word as if it were a grave sin and he could've sworn he saw Kairi blush in the darkness.

"Yeah, but _I'm_ the one who overreacted," The auburn haired girl slowly sunk down to take a seat in the corner of the pantry, pulling her knees into her chest timidly. "You just took me by surprise, that's all. I didn't know what to do and then I just got too embarrassed to say anything about it because I thought maybe you hadn't actually meant to do it."

"I did mean it," Sora answered a little too quickly, making Kairi crack a smile. "I mean, uh - if that's okay."

The girl watched Sora take a seat beside her on the floor. It was easier to see his eyes up close, even with only a small strip of light from under the door, and they were beaming at her with poorly concealed excitement. "I'm glad," said Kairi. "And it's definitely okay."

"So," Sora began, his smile already beginning to expand across his face. "Does this mean that everything's good again?"

"I think this means that everything is perfect," Kairi's hand crawled in the darkness until it found Sora's and held it. "And just for the record, not talking to you really sucks."

Sora laughed sharply because he knew all too well how much he needed Kairi in his life. The past few weeks had certainly taught him that much. "Yeah, and apparently it also makes me forget how to wear clothes."

Kairi snorted and tugged playfully on the hood of Sora's hoodie that was still hanging around the front of his neck. There was a silent beat between them where they both just focused on each other's faces - the way their smiles tugged relentlessly on their lips and lit up their eyes.

"Just kiss her already," They heard Riku mutter with dry affection from outside the door.

The pair inside the pantry were suddenly aware of how close they'd scooted together without realizing it. They sat hip to hip, hand to hand, their faces mere inches apart. As they both blushed and chuckled in spite of themselves, Sora lifted a hand to gently tangle through Kairi's hair, bringing their lips together for a proper kiss.

They hardly even noticed when Riku unlocked the pantry door about fifteen minutes later.

* * *

Namine tried to ignore the fact that a strange car had been following her down the road ever since she left campus to begin her walk home. She kept her head down and didn't dare look back, but the rumbling of the engine still sputtered along from a few feet behind. She contemplated darting down a random alleyway or - under far more severe circumstances - dialing the cops on her cell. However, before she could reach a conclusion, the car sped up beside her and cranked its window down.

"Yo, Goldilocks,"

A rush of adrenaline soared through Namine's veins. The voice was unfamiliar and - even worse - slightly menacing. The small girl quickened her footsteps, but the car annoyingly kept up.

"Aw, don't be that way," The driver sang, obviously in an attempt to be friendly. "I'm just trying to get to know you."

"I have pepper spray," Namine spoke up firmly, still averting her gaze.

The driver seemed to find this statement entertaining. "Well, I'm very happy for you and your safety precautions, but I don't have any lollipops to lure you in with so you're shit out of luck."

The blonde girl finally stopped and swirled around to face her antagonist. The driver - and his fiery red mane - was leaning an elbow on the window ledge, steering one-handed as he idled beside Namine. He wore a pair of old school headphones around his neck and had a lit cigarette hanging out the side of his smirking mouth. The car he drove was more rust than actual car and the entire frame shook even with the radio turned down low. Namine wrinkled her nose.

"And you are?" She prompted.

"Axel," answered the redhead. "Got it memorized?"

Namine didn't budge. "And what do you want, Axel?"

The older boy smacked a hand to his heart as if he were wounded. "You really know how to make a guy feel special, Namine. Jeez, Roxas told me a lot about you, but he failed to mention the 'tude."

"Roxas?" Namine perked up. "You know Roxas?"

"Blondie, kinda short, with a healthy dose of teen angst," Axel winked. "That's the one."

Namine surveyed this boy again. She vaguely recognized him as one of those seniors who wore black and only associated with themselves. She wondered what he had to do with Roxas - if he was actually telling the truth, that is. She also wondered why Roxas had never mentioned him before.

"Quiet all of a sudden, huh?" Axel removed the cigarette from his mouth after a final drag and shoved it into one of his cup holders, which apparently functioned as an ashtray. "Listen - as a good pal of Roxas, I'm taking an interest in his life. Which now includes you, Goldilocks. So, need a ride? Yes or no."

"I can walk, thank you," Namine started down the sidewalk again. Axel revved the engine and slowly crept alongside her.

"Something tells me we got off on the wrong foot here," The redhead tried again. "Roxas aside, I'm just a guy with wheels asking from the goodness of my heart whether or not you'd like a lift. I do curbside service."

Namine bit down on her bottom lip in contemplation. Her initial reaction might've been to turn away, but if this boy actually was a friend of Roxas, then he must possess some redeeming features. The tiny blonde said nothing - just held her head high and found her way into the passenger seat of Axel's car.

"Atta girl," He praised, reaching over to turn up the radio a bit. "Where to?"

"Atlantica Avenue," Namine replied distractedly. She was much too busy examining the inside of Axel's car with disdain. Everything smelled like smoke and she counted at least three empty bags of chips just on the first glance.

They sped off down the street, Axel's rusty car groaning in protest every time he pressed the accelerator. "So tell me, Namine," Axel raised an eyebrow with mock intimidation. "What exactly are your intentions with dear Roxas?"

"He's a good friend," Namine explained, vaguely regretting her decision to get in the car as she watched the speedometer fall much past the speed limit.

Axel tsked softly. "Already brutally friend-zoning him? Give a guy a chance, will ya? I can vouch for his good character."

Namine idly thought that praise of good character coming from the likes of Axel didn't exactly mean much. "I know that he's a great person, but that's honestly all we are right now - just friends."

"Shame," The senior murmured as he took a sharp turn. "'Cause the kid's got it bad for you."

The blonde girl blushed and looked down at her hands neatly folded in her lap. "Really?"

Axel smirked. "I wouldn't lie - scout's honor."

The rest of the trip was silent (except for Axel quietly singing along with the radio), much to Namine's relief. Her mind was now swimming with the prospect of the redhead's words being true. Did Roxas actually like her? More importantly, did she like Roxas?

"Like I said, curbside service," Axel rolled up slowly in front of Namine's house.

The girl shouldered her bag. "Thank you, Axel."

"I accept tips in the form of sexual favors," He continued.

Namine froze, turned, and stared at him.

"Kidding. Joke. Not actually a thing," Axel shook his head. "Jeez, the sense of humor needs a little work, Goldilocks. Got it memorized?"

"Goodbye, Axel," Namine got out of the car and shut the door before hurrying up her driveway.

She flinched when she heard Axel suddenly turn up the radio to full volume and take off down the street with his rusty tires screeching.

**TBC**

* * *

**A/N: RIKU TO THE RESCUE. And a little fluffy RokuNami for ya'll. Just wait. Juuuuuuust wait. I also _had_ to have Namine and Axel meet because their dynamic just makes me giggle. Axel's just doing his duty as Roxas' friend by speaking on his behalf, clearly. :P And now that some things have gotten resolved, it's time for things to go wrong again! Hooray! Stay tuned, everyone, and thanks for reading. **


	7. The 90s called

**A/N: We're back in action, folks. I may not have been able to write during my vacation this past weekend, but I had plenty of time to plan everything out. So when the time came to actually sit down at the computer, I cranked it out pretty quickly. Anyway, as you can probably tell, this fic takes place over the course of a school year so we're approaching Halloween time! I think you all already know that that means more shenanigans will ensue. ;) Enjoy! **

* * *

**OUR SO-CALLED LIVES: Chapter 7**

It didn't take Sora and Kairi long to change their Facebook statuses and make their newfound relationship official. Riku couldn't even pretend to be surprised - it had taken him far too long to herd his friends out of his pantry before he could never look at pasta the same way again - and despite the couple's initial concerns, he really was very happy for them. If this agonizing experience taught them anything, it was that Sora and Kairi were much better off being together.

During the first week, things seemed to be back to normal. Kairi was joining them at the lunch table and for their walks to school again. She was meeting them in the halls and, most importantly, she was on speaking terms with Sora. The only differences seemed to be the subtle handholding that Riku would catch sight of as they hurried off to pre-calc or the way Sora would up the ante on his gentlemanly tendencies to earn him a pretty smile.

Riku didn't mind.

During the second week, their relationship seemed to progress. Their handholding would usually end with a polite kiss as Sora dropped Kairi off outside her classroom. Lunch time had less to do with eating and more to do with flirting as Sora would gently tug on Kairi's hair and she'd try to shove a french fry into his mouth in return. Riku even noticed that the two had started to leave sickeningly adorable notes to each other in the trio's communal locker.

Riku didn't mind.

The third week rolled around much too quickly. Riku missed the days of catching glimpses of shy kisses and cheesy letters because - just like it had last week - their relationship grew to yet another level. Their quick kisses goodbye outside their respective classrooms had escalated to emotional soliloquies and playful arguments about who would miss who more during their time apart. And now, Riku would almost always approach their locker to find the pair leaning against it, their faces so close together that their noses were practically rubbing. They'd each whisper sweet nothings to one another until Kairi would giggle or Sora would slowly lace their fingers together.

Riku _absolutely_ minded.

He could put on a very convincing pokerface, but eye rolls and unamused glares were just too tempting for the brooding boy whenever his friends got particularly gooey. Riku was smart enough to understand that this was most likely just a honeymoon phase that they'd pass through soon enough, but if he had to hear one more giggle or lip smack during lunch while he attempted to study for his next period's unit test, he would show no remorse for his actions.

"Looks like someone decided to wear his clothes the right way today."

"What can I say? I've been in a much better mood lately."

"Oh, really? It wouldn't have to do with anything in particular, would it?"

"Just this girl… This really amazingly perfect girl, actually."

"Hm… Kinda sounds like this guy I'm dating. He's sweet and cute and funny…"

Riku looks up from his study sheet just in time to watch Sora place a kiss on Kairi's cheek. The two were sitting so close to each other on the lunch table bench that they might as well be sitting in each other's laps. The silver-haired boy could've sworn he felt his eye twitch.

"Spare us all, _please_," Riku deadpanned. "Now which one of you is gonna quiz me on these flashcards?"

The couple shared a knowing glance, but finally scooted apart enough for Sora to grab the stack of homemade flashcards. "What's wrong, sourpuss?" He asked.

Riku looked down at the tabletop surrounding him, which was covered with notebooks, textbooks, and loose sheets of paper as if that wasn't explanation enough for his cheerful friend. "Nothing's wrong. Track ran late last night so I didn't have enough time to study for this test when I got home."

Sora and Kairi shared another quick glance. Whenever Riku claimed that track practice ran late it was usually because he made sure it did. The overachiever was always staying late after practice to run an extra mile or two while his fellow teammates went home for the day. At first, his friends didn't understand this routine, but after learning more about his home life, they both assumed that it was because Riku wanted to avoid going home for as long as possible.

"Alrighty… A mixture in which the composition is not uniform throughout," Sora read off the first flashcard.

"Heterogeneous mixture," Riku answered quickly.

Kairi leaned an elbow onto the tabletop, her gaze thoughtfully taking in Riku's slightly haggard expression. "Hey, you know, my cousin is coming to town at the end of the semester."

"Really? That's cool," replied Sora. "Purifying a liquid by boiling it and condensing its vapors?"

Riku closed his eyes to think. "Distillation."

"Yeah, she's really great," Kairi went on, eyes still lingering on Riku. "She's our age, too, and lives in Traverse Town. Her dad has to travel a lot for work, but doesn't want her to miss any school so she's staying with me and coming to Destiny High for a semester."

"Differences in flow rate through special papers or substances," Sora read.

"Chromatography," said Riku.

Kairi wrinkled her brow. "Are you even listening to me, Riku?"

The boy sighed. "Yes, I got it. Your cousin is coming to town."

"Exactly," Kairi flicked her gaze to Sora, then back to Riku, and grinned. "I thought the four of us could hang out together. You'll really like her."

Riku nodded absently, but when he glanced up at his friends, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Sora looked innocent enough, but Kairi was wearing a broad smile that he knew all too well. She was up to something and whatever it was, it involved Riku. It only took him a moment to put the pieces together in his mind.

"Oh, god," He complained. "You're trying to set me up with your cousin."

The auburn-haired girl almost looked offended by how quickly Riku figured out her plan. She knew that denying it now would only worsen the situation so she crossed her arms defiantly and held her ground. "What's so wrong with that? We could go on double dates and then maybe you wouldn't be so-"

"Wouldn't be so what?" Riku pressed.

Kairi bit down on her bottom lip and stole a desperate glance at Sora in a silent plea for backup, but the brunette boy just sipped loudly at his chocolate milk. "Just… you know. You wouldn't be so busy and stressed all the time. If you had something to distract you, I mean."

"Distractions are the last thing I need," He countered.

"You know what I mean, Riku," Kairi offered a small, sincere smile. "You're the one who helped me and Sora work things out and now we just want to see you as happy as we are."

Riku could only stare dubiously at his friends. Deep down, he knew that they meant well, but his stubborn mind couldn't shake the belief that they were both inferring that he was some poor, weak soul who needed help to feel alive. "I _am_ happy. And I don't need something superficial to prove it."

"We know that. It's just-"

"And even if I did, I can handle it on my own," Riku closed his textbook and slid his notebook back into his bag. "Sure, I'll hang out with your cousin, but not because I'm looking for anything."

Kairi knew that was the best she was going to get out of Riku without pushing any of his buttons. She nodded silently and returned her attention to her lunch.

"So, uh," Sora held up the stack of flashcards with a cheeky grin. "How about some more studying?"

"Nah," said Riku as he gathered his things into his bag and stood from the table. "I think I'll head to the library. See you guys later."

Kairi sighed and Sora waved as their friend turned to leave the cafeteria. The girl leaned her head on Sora's shoulder and her boyfriend pressed a reassuring kiss into her hair.

* * *

"No. Nope. No way. Not gonna happen," Hayner stated with unwavering conviction as he marched around to the other side of the clothing rack.

Olette, who was always considered the most level-headed of the group, was silently seething. Hayner and his unfailingly shortsighted tendencies had a knack for firing the girl up more than anything else. The two always bickered like a pair of siblings (more like an old married couple, in Roxas' opinion), but on this particular afternoon their incessant squabbling could almost be justified. After all, the group was now going on their second fruitless hour of searching through Destiny Island's only notable thrift shop in town - the one with the broken air conditioning and smelled like an old lady's attic.

"You are so _frustrating_," Olette scolded a shrugging Hayner. "I'm just trying to make some suggestions."

"Yeah, well, your suggestions suck," The hotheaded boy carefully examined another row of clothes while Olette continued to fume.

"What sucks?" Roxas approached the pair after a casual meander through the home decor aisle, smoothie cup in hand from the cafe across the street. He hardly needed any explanation judging by Hayner's indifference and Olette's impressive scowl.

The small brunette turned to Roxas with crossed arms and a huff. "Hayner is being unnecessarily difficult about our Halloween costumes this year," She shot the boy in question a glare over her shoulder. "And he thinks that every single one of my ideas sucks."

Hayner tore his gaze away from the faux leather overalls he was eyeing long enough to point an accusing finger over the rack at Olette. "She wants us to go as the Addams family. _Yawn! _The 90s called and they want their bad taste back."

Before Olette could erupt and cause a scene in the store, Roxas shoved his half-full smoothie into her hands and the pouting girl reluctantly took a long sip to cool herself down. "Well, what are the other options?" Roxas asked diplomatically.

Pence poked his head around a hat rack a few feet away, swapping his usual headband for an animal printed fedora. "I said Power Rangers."

"And _I_ said we should find the cheapest thing here and focus on getting as much candy as possible instead," For a brief moment, Hayner's hardened expression dropped when his eyes flickered to Roxas. "Besides, we have to start planning for a group of _three_ now that mister-big-mouth decided to get himself grounded."

Olette and Pence sighed almost simultaneously as if Hayner had just reminded them of precisely what they didn't want to hear. It came as no surprise that Roxas had gotten severely grounded after his latest family dinner debacle. He still didn't regret his rebellious actions, but it certainly put a damper on his upcoming Halloween plans. Even if he wasn't allowed to leave the house with his friends for their yearly trick-or-treating adventures, he wasn't about to miss out on one of their other traditions - namely, spending the afternoon scouring the sales for the perfect costumes. Roxas wasn't shopping for himself this year, but his friends insisted that his approval and presence was still necessary.

"Are you sure you can't come with us?" Olette wondered mournfully, returning the smoothie to Roxas' hand. "It's been weeks now. How long are you even grounded for?"

Roxas heaved a sigh of his own and plopped down into a nearby beanbag chair. "For as long as I say so!" He answered in his best exaggerated impression of his mother, causing Pence to snicker from behind the rack.

"You know," Hayner began, a devious smile creeping onto his face. "If you want out without getting caught, just say so. My brother keeps this epic crowbar thing in the garage that I've been dying to-"

"Um, no," Roxas quickly stopped his friend before a full-blown scheme could overtake his common sense. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm not planning on doing anymore breaking out any time soon. She thinks I'm at after-school tutoring right now. I'm already grounded for eternity and I wouldn't put it past my mom to start starving me into obedience."

Pence walked out from behind the rack, this time with a mustard-colored beret. "S'not gonna be the same without you, man," He lamented.

"Yeah," Roxas mumbled pensively before sucking up the final remnants of his mango smoothie. For as long as he could remember, he'd always spent Halloween night running through the neighborhood streets with his friends, laughing and collecting as much candy as possible. Despite the vague and depressing thought that they might be getting a little old to keep trick-or-treating, Roxas didn't want to endure a year without those memories to look back on. "But you guys go have fun. I might make plans with Namine to watch a scary movie at home or something. I'm not allowed to go out with friends, but my mom didn't say anything about friends coming to _me_, right?"

Hayner stopped what he was doing and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Yes, Roxas, get it!"

The blonde grabbed the nearest object - which just so happened to be a slightly-used rubber dog toy in the shape of a bone - and chucked it at Hayner's head. His friend, while hollering with laughter, ducked down and the toy bounced off the wire clothes rack with a squeak.

"We'll be sure to pick you up some extra candy," Olette offered kindly after the boys' antics.

"Unless Ms. Gainsborough is handing out king-sized Hershey bars again," added Pence. "Then it's every man for himself!"

Even Roxas had to laugh at this. Their kind and green-thumbed neighbor was known for her generous attention toward the trick-or-treaters - Pence most likely being her most enthusiastic patron.

"Well, even if we aren't going with a theme this year," She shot another glare at Hayner. "there's got to be something in this place we can use."

Hayner grabbed an armful of clothing items off the nearby rack and began his march to the fitting rooms. "Yeah, let's get this show on the road!"

"Alright," Roxas leaned back in his beanbag chair. "I'll be here if you guys need a second opinion on anything."

"Not so fast," Olette chirped, hoisting Roxas up by his arm while Pence grabbed onto the other one. "You might not need a costume this year, but that doesn't mean you're not embarrassing yourself in the fitting room with the rest of us!"

Roxas laughed more than he struggled when his friends shoved him into a changing room with an array of ridiculous outfits. He just shook his head affectionately as he pulled off his shirt, already knowing that no wasn't an option.

* * *

Namine and Riku's rooftop meetings were usually reserved for playful banter, funny anecdotes from their day, and silent appreciation of the brilliant night sky. There was a certain relief that they both felt after a long day when they'd crawl out of their windows and meet in a secret place all their own. They could talk about everything or absolutely nothing at all.

Which is why Riku felt completely comfortable to confide in her about his frustrations from earlier that day. As it turned out, Namine was a phenomenal listener.

"I'm glad they're happy, but sometimes I feel like I've created a monster," Riku explained. He was laying on his back, legs crossed and hands resting behind his head. "Or maybe I'm the monster for thinking that."

Namine shook her head with certainty. "Don't say that. You're used to them being your two best friends, not a couple. It's going to take some adjusting, just like anything else."

"The problem is that now they're so high up on cloud nine that they think I'm some miserable bum," Riku watched the flickering stars dance across the dark sky and listened to the uneven pattern of Namine's pencil strokes against her sketchpad. "They think I'm not happy."

"_Are_ you happy?" Namine wondered frankly.

Riku paused to think. He wasn't expecting to be asked that and he certainly wasn't expecting such hesitation when he thought of a response. The silver-haired boy thought about the pressure to take care of his father - to be a parent for his own parent. He thought about the pressure from his coach to win his track meets and to get good grades so he could get into a good college.

"I have responsibilities," He replied quietly.

"But are you happy?" Namine asked again.

Riku thought again. This time he thought about laughing with his friends, the wind blowing through his hair as he sprinted around the track, and sharing these special moments with Namine on the roof. "Right now? Yeah. I'm happy."

Namine's eyes sparkled triumphantly as she peeked up from her sketch. "Then it doesn't matter what they think."

Riku sat up just in time to meet the blonde girl's smile with his own. "Sorry for ranting about this all night. We haven't even talked about _your_ day yet."

Namine's shoulders curled inward in that adorable way they always did whenever the attention was turned on her. "It was amazingly uneventful. But look," She turned her sketchpad around to show him her latest drawing. On the stark white paper there was a light pencil sketch of a cartooned Riku. It was much more primitive and playful than her usual drawings, but still quite impressive. "See? I even drew you with a smile on your face."

The silver-haired boy broke into a bright grin that matched his cartoon counterpart and threw his head back in laughter. "That one's by far my favorite!"

"Me, too," Namine agreed with a giggle of her own. The girl placed her sketchpad aside and pulled her knees into her chest as she looked up to watch the stars.

"Hey, Namine," Riku spoke up, his legs stretched out in front of him. "Are _you_ happy?"

She blinked her wide eyes at Riku, somewhat confounded by the sudden question. Her mind, too, wandered toward thoughts of a warm ocean breeze, the smell of a new case of pastels, and, of course, her rooftop conversations with Riku.

"Right now? Yes. I'm very happy."

They smiled at each other from across their rooftops and then continued to gaze at the stars.

* * *

Roxas knew that something unusual was going on as soon as he approached the Organization's table. Instead of staring off into space, fiddling with their phones, or picking at their lunches, all of the seniors were abuzz with quiet murmuring. It was easy to pick Axel out of the sea of black. The redhead still sat on the outskirts of the group and as soon as he spotted Roxas walking nearer, he waved him over excitedly.

"What's going on?" Roxas asked as he took his usual seat across from his older friend.

Axel was grinning broadly with nothing but a can of soda in front of him on the table. "The annual Organization Halloween preparations, of course."

Roxas, who had silently picked up on Axel's lack of food, placed his tray between the two of them and lifted a brow. "Don't tell me you go trick-or-treating. That seems a little… out of character for you guys."

"Very cute, blondie," Axel cooed and reached a hand across the table to ruffle Roxas' nest of blonde hair, which was promptly swatted away. "But no. Just a big blow-out party that you aren't invited to because Xemnas is a dickwad and you're pretty much chained to your house - but mostly because Xemnas is a dickwad."

The younger boy turned his head while he chewed a mouthful of his oatmeal cookie. He caught sight of the senior in question, Xemnas, speaking conspiratorially to the group. During Roxas' visits to their lunch table and from what he's heard from Axel, he gathered that Xemnas was sort of the Organization's leader. The boy looked much older than his age, with long silver-colored hair, and piercing eyes that even intimidated Axel - even if he'd never admit it. It was also quite clear that Xemnas didn't care much for Roxas' presence at the table. The Organization leader had barely even acknowledged Roxas' existence, but when he had, it had only been with a chilling glare.

"It's fine," Roxas said. "I might make plans to stay in with Namine, anyway."

At the mention of the girl's name, Axel made a show of rolling his eyes. "Do what you want, kid, but I'll say it again - the girl's easy on the eyes, but she's as stale as last month's bread."

And then Roxas rolled his eyes. He had nearly had a conniption when Axel admitted to driving her home after school a few weeks ago. Even though the redhead insisted that he had nothing but good intentions, Roxas knew that his senior friend was an acquired taste that Namine may not have been prepared for. "I still can't believe you stalked her after school that one time," He mumbled, smacking a hand to his forehead.

"_First_ of all," said Axel, holding up a finger. "There was no _stalking_ involved. I gave her a ride from the goodness deep within my heart."

"Yeah, _very_ deep within," Roxas smirked, earning him a french fry to the face.

"And second," The redhead continued. "You should be thanking me for my efforts. Bowing down to me, actually. I scoped out the prized item and gave you my honest, objective opinion - and at zero cost."

"You're right. Must be my lucky day," Roxas snorted. "Too bad I'm taking your opinion with a very small grain of salt."

Axel winked. "One day you'll recognize my genius."

The ringing of the bell cut through the activity in the cafeteria. All the students stood from their respective tables and filed out of the room to fill the hallways. The Organization members did the same, still chattering to each other in excited but low voices. Axel stayed behind with Roxas and as the blonde boy slung his backpack over his shoulder, he could've sworn he noticed that blue-haired kid - Saix, was it? - shooting Axel a strange glare.

"So have fun at your party," Roxas told his friend as they neared the doorway. "Lemme know if the hangover's too bad. I can sneak over some gatorade and Advil."

Axel grinned, chuckled, and slung an arm over Roxas' shoulder despite their vast height difference. "You're too good to me, blondie. But don't sweat it," He looked down at Roxas with more of a smirk than a smile. "It's not that kind of party."

The redhead squeezed Roxas' shoulder and then hurried off through the halls, leaving his friend utterly perplexed by his vague statement. Sometimes Axel had a funny way of explaining things and that's exactly what Roxas chalked it up to as he continued on to his next class.

**TBC**

* * *

**A/N: It's funny because when I was first planning out this story, Riku wasn't a big part of it at all. But then I started writing and accidentally fell in love with him. Oops? I also promise that SoKai won't always be that obnoxious and couple-y. They're just still basking in their new relationship. :) The next chapter is gonna be a big one: it's the Halloween chapter! So prepare yourselves accordingly. Maybe we'll finally find out what the Organization is up to?! Stay tuned and thanks for reading! **


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